Our towns and villages are being stifled

Growth and development in towns and villages throughout County Tipperary are being stymied by the failure of policy makers to provide proper water and wastewater treatment facilities, local councillors and the county council have told the Government.

Several planned housing schemes in towns such as Nenagh and villages like Ballycommon and Cloughjordan cannot currently proceed due to lack of investment in sewage treatment and other vital infrastructure.

The deficiencies have been outlined by Nenagh Municipal District councillors and by the county council itself, whose concerns are highlighted in a submission the local authority has made to the Government on the revised National Planning Framework.

In its submission, the council warns that the slow pace of water infrastructure delivery throughout the county is “of particular concern”.

In a blunt, hard-hitting assessment of the crisis, the council states: “Tipperary has a robust network of towns and villages providing opportunities for local employment in the communities of the county.

“However, many town and villages in the county do not have adequate water supply or wastewater services, stifling the sustainable growth of these towns and villages.

“Instead of our towns and villages developing critical mass, this has the effect that these places cannot provide a reasonable alternative to urban-generated rural one-off housing, cannot support employment, local services are diminished, and the function of our towns and villages is undermined,”the council states.

BLAME ON WATER COMPANY

Pointing out that the same situation is replicated throughout the country, the council lays some of the blame on Uisce Éireann, saying: “The current practice of Uisce Éireann publishing water capacity registers helps to bring some transparency in identifying issues with water infrastructure constraints, but frequently issues are only identified when services are at or near capacity.

“This is not a sustainable model of infrastructure investment and needs to be rectified if we are to ensure we can develop sustainable growth whilst protecting our environment and water.

“Uisce Éireann must be compelled to provide bi-monthly capacity register updates to identify issues at the earliest stage possible, so that these can be rectified. There is also a need for a consistent and transparent approach to determining capacities.”

Tipperary County Council has also warned the government that Ireland’s obligations under the Water Framework Directive to clean up its rivers, lakes and estuaries to achieve “good ecological status” by 2027 at the latest, will not be met unless there is investment to match aspiration and ambition outlined in the draft National Framework Directive.

MORRIS’ CONCERNS

Nenagh Independent councillor Séamie Morris said it was proving impossible for the council to realise its objective of creating more homes for people in the towns and villages of North Tipperary.

He warned that the local authority now had really no alternative but to ease planning regulations to allow people build more one-off houses and add to ribbon development in the countryside.

This was because new housing could not be built in towns like Nenagh and villages such as Ballycommon and Cloughjordan because of the failure of the State to deliver proper wastewater treatment facilities in these areas.

Cllr Morris praised the council for what he described as its very significant submission to the Government. He pointed out that it could be 2028 or later by the time Uisce Éireann had increased the capacity of the currently pressured wastewater treatment plant in Nenagh.

Cllr Morris noted that the council had also pointed out to the Government that the housing crisis was being escalated due to the fact that it was not currently profitable for developers to build houses in town like Nenagh, and similar settlements throughout Tipperary and the country in general.

In its submission, the council states: “Of particular concern is the failure to recognise the viability challenges of delivering private tenure housing in the current market, where the high sale value of market homes is still inadequate to provide sufficient profit for developers as a result of very high development input costs.”

The council also states that the roles and importance of key towns to the wider economy and hinterlands, such as Nenagh, Clonmel and Thurles, is not even referenced within the National Planning Framework.

The local authority says this failing should be addressed, to include specific reference to key towns and their varying roles and character in supporting employment.

It also recommends that any revised National Planning Framework strategy should provide explicit support for the development of key towns by recognising the need for the delivery of large land banks as a priority.