Ref Section 2.6.4 Deliverability Analysis, Consequential Amendment arising from Material Amendment 2.1
The Office of the Planning Regulator advised in September that “having regard to the need for Newcastle and Rathcoole to develop at an incremental pace, based on the delivery of social, physical and transport infrastructure and services as stated in the Core Strategy (pages 72 and 73), the planning authority is requested to strengthen the policy and objectives to reflect the need to support incremental growth to align with infrastructure and service”. I don’t believe this has been achieved. In fact, planned infrastructure is being reduced before it is even being built, with the Western Orbital Route proposed to only go to the N7 and not the N81 in the Draft Development Plan which went out to public consultation.
In light of the submission by the Office of the Planning Regulator, regarding the growth trajectory for the villages of Newcastle and Rathcoole, I question the planned development in Rathcoole, Saggart and Newcastle, which has dramatically increased by 25% without any planned increase in infrastructure. The population of Rathcoole has grown by 194% over a ten-year period (2006-2016). This level of growth far exceeds the South Dublin average for the same period (12.89%) and EMRA (15%). A further increase of 30%+ in Newcastle and Rathcoole without the delivery of much needed infrastructure would represent bad planning.