Bru na Boinne buffer zone 'being extended by stealth'

Claims that the buffer zone used to protect the Bru na Boinne sites of Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth was being expanded by stealth and that this was preventing local people from getting planning permission for housing were made by councillors at a meeting of the Slane Electoral Area Committee of Meath County Council in Duleek. The issue was raised by Cllr Jimmy Cudden who said the council needed to look at the way the planners were interpreting the planning regulations. He knew of family members who could not get permission to build on their own land, even though they lived outside the protective buffer zone. Councillor Wayne Harding said people living outside the buffer zone were being asked to provide environmental impact statements when applying for planning. He said there were serious implications for the whole area in this move. He did not know who had been responsible for the failure to have a framework plan for the Bru na Boinne area. It was a serious lapse, he added. Cllr Cudden said that he knew of a person who lived outside the buffer zone who had applied three times for planning permission but had been turned down. He said that when councillors were recently taken on a tour of the area, the people conducting the tour could not show them where the buffer zone started and ended. Cllr Ann Dillon Gallagher said that while the buffer zone was there to protect the ancient monuments, a situation now existed where that zone had been extended and people living in this newly created buffer zone could not get planning permission. Area manager Tadhg McDonnell said that Bru na Boinne was one of three world heritage sites in the country, the other two being the Giants Causeway and the Skelligs. He said that the county development plan laid down the criteria for planning and there was a appeals mechanism contained within that. There was nothing to show that Meath County Council was in any way draconian in its approach to planning, but there were quite specific criteria for heritage areas, he said. Separately, Cllr Dillon Gallagher raised the issue of the utilisation of cow pastures at Lobinstown and Syddan. She said there was a situation now where people could not go for a walk on country roads because they were too dangerous, and she suggested that the pastures be transformed into country parks.