The Galway County Council could begin working from scratch on a new draft development plan for Barna, it emerged this week.
The council heard on Monday of concerns raised by local pressure group Pobal Bearna at its annual general meeting last week, which most of the Connemara area county councillors attended.
Pobal Bearna has called for a moratorium on planning permissions until such time as a new development plan for the village is adopted, and it has asked An Bord Pleanála for an inquiry into planning decisions taken in the village.
According to the council's director of planning and economic development services, Paul Ridge, a moratorium could not be implemented, though he conceded the projection of 480 new houses outlined for a cluster of villages including Barna in the county's settlement strategy was close to being reached.
Mr Ridge refused to be drawn by questions from Cllr Seosamh Ó Cuaig, who asked for his views on the call sfor an inquiry into planning in the village by the loca lpressure group.
"We are primarily influenced by the debate that takesplace in this chamber and that is where we take our views from," he said. "Every plan must have as its base an accurate population projection, and that is what we are working on at the moment."
Mr Ridge said he hoped the council would be in aposition to start preparing a plan for the village by theend of March. He also said the amount of land zoned for development in Barna did not tally with the council's population projections for the village.
"The amount of land zoned has a heavy influence onthe number of permissions coming in and that aregranted," he added. "At the moment each application that we get will be considered on its merits." He said it would be inappropriate for him to comment on the debate over the proposed coastal protection zone,which would disallow development within a certain distance of the high water mark.
"There is no provision for distance from any mark ,and until that plan is adjudicated on by yourselves therewon't be," he told the councillors. "All we can do is proceed on a case by case basis."
Cllr Seamus Walsh stressed the need to provide adequate amenity zoning in the village, along with the need to enable the school to expand to cope with the growing population.
Pobal Bearna delivered a letter to the county manager Pat Gallagher this week, containing more than 120signatures collected during the AGM. The group has called on the council to protect the village from overdevelopment, and specifically to protect the village's coastal strip from development.
The group has repeatedly hit out at the massive increase in development in Barna in recent years, which has occurred without a concomitant increase in infrastructure or community facilities.
Údarás na Gaeltachta candidate Trevor Ó Clochartaigh has also voiced his concern at the rate of development in Barna, and he has echoed Pobal Bearna's calls for an independent inquiry into planning in the village.
"The whole planning process is in limbo at the moment in the absence of a well thought out plan for Barna, which is acceptablet o the community being put in place," he said. "The people of Barna want to know the logic behind the decisions taken by the Connemara committee of councillors in2002. What benefit have those decisions had for thec ommunity of Barna?" BY UNA SINNOTT Galway Adveretiser 17-2-2005