Minutes of the Monthly Meeting of the Mid West Regional Authority held at 1.30 P.M. on Wednesday 7th April 2010 in the Council Chamber, Limerick County Council, County Hall, Dooradoyle, Limerick

Cllr. L. Walsh, Cathaoirleach presided. 

      

Present:

Clare County Council:

Cllrs. G. Flynn, O. Garry, P. Keane, P.J. Kelly, P. McMahon, B. Meaney and S. Scanlon.

 

Limerick City Council:

Cllrs. G. Fahy, M. Hourigan, J. Leddin and K. Leddin.

 

Limerick County Council:

Cllrs. M. Donegan, Richard Butler, N. Gleeson, S. Keary, W. O’Donnell and L. Walsh.

 

North Tipperary County Council:

Cllrs. S. Hanafin, Phyll Bugler, V. O’Dowd and M. Ryan.

 

Apology:

Cllr. Gerard Darcy

 

Absent: Cllrs. Denis McCarthy, Diarmuid Scully, John Egan & Michael Lowry.

 

Also Present:

Mr. L. Conneally, Director.

Mr. T. Mackey, Designated Manager.

Mr. R. Tobin, RPG Project Manager.

Ms. M. O’Brien, Clerical Officer.

 

1.  Minutes.

 

The Minutes of (A) Monthly Meeting held on the 3rd March 2010 (B) Finance/Conference Sub-Committee meeting held on the 3rd March 2010 were proposed by Cllr. Noel Gleeson, seconded by Cllr. Pat Keane and agreed as presented.

 

 

2. Matters Arising. None

 

  

3. Correspondence.

 

The Members noted the following correspondence, schedule of which had been circulated with the Agenda:

 

 (A) Email date 27th January 2010 from Brendan Kenny, Limerick Regeneration Project regarding membership of the Limerick Regeneration Steering Committee.

The Director advised the Members that he is a Member of the Limerick Regeneration Steering Committee. 

(B) Letter dated 16th March 2010 from Shannon Development and the attached Limerick Tourism Trade Manual 2010.

(C) FOI request dated 8th March 2010 from the Irish Independent.

Following discussions it was agreed that the Members expenses in the future will be placed on the Mid West Regional Authority website.

(D) Letter dated 3rd March 2010 from Limerick County Council re: Adare Bypass Environmental Impact Statement.

(E) Letter dated 9th March 2010 from Offaly County Council re: Notice of having adopted Offaly County Development Plan 2009-2015.

(F) Notice of Motion from Cllr. P.J. Kelly.

“That a written report be made available to the Members of the M.W.R.A. giving a concise reference in Govt/Spatial Policy which provides for ”assigned” population to areas within Local Authorities which constitute the M.W.R.A.”.

 

(G) Reply date 25th March 2010 from the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to query re alignment of Waste Management Regions to coincide with Regional Authority regions.

 

 

4. Combating Antisocial Behaviour

 

The Cathaoirleach referred to the address of Mr. Dave Sheahan, Chief Superintendant, Henry Street, Limerick and stated that he would be in attendance at the May Regional Authority meeting.  It was proposed by Cllr. Jerry Flynn and seconded by Cllr. Bill O’Donnell to defer the item to the May monthly meeting.

  

 

5. Limerick Local Government Committee

The Members noted the contents of letter dated the 12th March 2010 from Mr. Eoin Corrigan, Department of the Environment, Heritage & Local Government regarding the work of the Limerick Local Government Committee. 

The issues raised in the Limerick Local Government Committee letter were discussed at length and the following motion regarding the Members’ response to the Committee was voted on and passed;

The following resolution was proposed by Cllr. PJ Kelly and seconded by Cllr. Richard Butler.-

“That the Mid West Regional Authority does not make a submission to the Limerick Local Government Committee, that a letter acknowledging the correspondence be issued to the Committee outlining that their correspondence was discussed at length and that no consensus was reached and that the Members felt that a Mid West Regional Authority submission would harm the existing and future working relationships within the Mid West Regional Authority”. 

Cllr. J. Leddin proposed and Cllr. G. Fahy seconded that the Regional Authority should make a submission.

The Cathaoirleach called for a vote which resulted as follows;

In favour of making a submission –

Cllrs. Ger Fahy, Oliver Garry,Pat Keane, Joe Leddin, Kathleen Leddin, Pat McMahon, Brian Meaney, Virginia O’Dowd, Leo Walsh ( 9 No.)

Against making a submission –

Cllrs. Richard Butler, Mike Donegan, Gerry Flynn, Noel Gleeson, Seamus Hanafin, Stephen Keary, PJ Kelly, William O’Donnell, Mattie Ryan and Sonny Scanlon  (10 No.)

Then the Cathaoirleach stated that the result of the vote was that no submission would be made by the Regional Authority to the Limerick Local Government Committee and that the Director convey this outcome to the Committee.

 

6. Waste Management in the Mid West Region (Indiscriminate Dumping in the Mid West Region)

Director L. Conneally stated that a response had been received on 25th March 2010 from the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to the query re alignment of Waste Management Regions to coincide with Regional Authority regions.

 

Cathaoirleach L. Walsh stated that illegal dumping has now become a big issue in the Mid West region. 

 

There was a brief discussion on the problem of illegal dumping and amongst the issues raised were:

 

• Contact with the NRA requesting that funding be available to the four Local Authorities to clean up the highways

 

• That individuals found dumping rubbish in illegal areas should be named and shamed in the local media

 

• That consideration be given to the idea that part of the money collected from the new Shannon tunnel should be allocated to litter management on Motorways

 

• That the feasibility of placing hidden cameras in remote rural areas be considered

 

7. Regional Planning Guidelines (RPG’s)/Regional Economic

    Strategy (RES) – Update Report

 

Director L. Conneally stated that the Directors Report on public submissions to the Regional Planning Guidelines review is being prepared at present and that this report will be tabled as an agenda item for the May monthly meeting of the Regional Authority.

 

8. Conferences

 

The attendance of Members at the following Conferences was noted and approved –

 

Cllr. Brian Meaney, Councillors Role in Changing Climate Conference in the Sligo Park Hotel, Pearse Road, Sligo on Friday, 9th & Saturday 10th April, 2010.

 

Cllr. Kathleen Leddin, The Sustainable Innovation Forum, Royal Hospital, Kilmainham on Tuesday, 27th April 2010.

 

9. Notice of Motion – Cllr. PJ Kelly

            “That a written report be made available to the Members of the M.W.R.A. giving a concise reference in Government/Spatial Policy           Which provides for “assigned” population to areas within Local Authorities which constitute the M.W.R.A.”

 

The Director read out the following response to the notice of motion which had been prepared by Mr. R. Tobin, RPG Project Manager (copy of letter which was circulated at the meeting)

Notice of Motion;

“That a written report be made available to the members of the MWRA giving a concise reference in Government Spatial Policy which provides for “assigned” population to areas within local authorities which constitute the MWRA.”

In relation to the above motion I wish to report as follows.

Under Sec 21(5) of the Planning and Development Act 2000 The Minister may make regulations concerning the making of regional planning guidelines and related matters and also under Sec 23(5)

Without prejudice to the generality of subsections (2) and (3), the Minister may issue guidelines on the content of regional planning guidelines and regional authorities shall have regard to those guidelines.

 In 2009, the Minister made regulations entitled Planning and Development (Regional Planning Guidelines) Regulations 2009 (SI 100 of 2009)

Sec 4 of these regulations state;

4. In accordance with the provisions of section 23 (4)(a) of the Act, the “National Spatial Strategy: 2002 — 2020” published by Government on 28 November 2002, including any updates, is hereby specified to be of relevance to the determination of strategic planning policies

This sets the spatial context for the “Gateway” and “Hub” as defined in the NSS and Section 6 goes on to determine the context for the use of Population Targets;

6. In accordance with the provisions of 23(2)(j) of the Act, the National and Regional Population Targets prepared by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, from time to time, are hereby prescribed for the purposes of establishing projected population trends to inform settlement and housing strategies in addressing the proper planning and sustainable development of the region to which the guidelines relate.

In January 2009, the Minister for the Environment wrote to all Regional Authorities instructing them on the population targets to be incorporated in the Regional Guidelines soon to be prepared. I quote from the instruction as follows;

Regional Authorities will be asked to incorporate the above 2010, 2016 and 2022 regional targets (Table 2) into their RPG review processes which will culminate in the making of new RPGs in mid-2010. They will also be requested to facilitate processes involving the local authorities in their respective regions aimed at allocating the regional targets between the Cities and Counties. These latter targets should be used as a basis when Development Plans are reviewed and need to be incorporated into revised Housing Strategies and other relevant policies. They should also form the basis for infrastructure and facilities planning in the short to medium term.

In July of 2009, the Minister again contacted the Regional Authorities and issued fresh instructions as follows;

Gateway and Hub population growth to 2016 and 2022 must take place within the overall regional population targets set by the Department in January 2009, thus leaving a population balance which would need to be distributed into the remainder of the region as a matter to be resolved within the process of making the RPGs.

Estimates of need for future development land must take place within the context of addressing the implications of the regional, Gateway and Hub town population targets first, followed by meeting the needs of other towns and rural areas as well, working within the overall regional population target of the January 2009 figures mentioned above.

Regional Authorities must incorporate the population targets for Gateways and Hubs in this note into the new RPGs, in line with the approach recommended in this note.

This instruction included tables giving the amended required targets for the Gateway of Limerick Shannon and the Hub of Ennis. This communication of July was further clarified in August of 2009 as follows;

The January 2009 document set out high and low targets for 2022.  Given the uncertain economic outlook in the short to medium term and associated migration impacts, the Department advises that the lower targets for 2022 should be included in the new RPG’s, and are therefore the basis for the Gateway/Hub targets set out in this document.

Additionally, the Minister now requested that specific allocation of target be made in respect of the component parts of the Limerick Shannon Gateway;

Limerick/Shannon: Taking account of the need to support the considerable future public investment in regeneration in the City, in the region of 70% of the increase of the population for the Limerick/Shannon Gateway must be applied to the area of Limerick City Council with the balance to be distributed between the remaining relevant areas in Counties Limerick and Clare;

I confirm that the population targets incorporated in the Draft Guidelines currently before the members have been prepared generally in accord with the above guidelines, directions and instructions.

Richard Tobin

March 2010

 

Cllr. PJ Kelly raised a number of issues to the response given including;

 

• Established population trends V’s targets

 

• Gateway’s and Hub Development should not be to the detriment of rural areas

 

• Queried that the draft Regional Planning Guidelines had been prepared ‘generally’ in accordance with the guidelines, directions and instructions issued by the Department

 

10. A.O.B.

 

Cllr. P. McMahon referred to the recent work visit to the New York, to the success of meetings with Enterprise Ireland, IDA NY, CIE International Tours, Tourism Ireland and the Clare NY Association and complemented the generosity and kindness that was shown to them during their stay.  He asked that a letter of thanks be forwarded to the necessary contacts.

 

This concluded the business of the meeting.