Rural housing: ‘There has to be a level playing field for everyone’

Two local fathers whose planning applications for family-owned sites have been refused as they have been deemed not to meet local needs criteria have spoken of their frustration.

When Tom (he asked that his real name not be used) and his wife moved back to Ireland from abroad it was with the firm intention of settling down and rearing their children in the same rural north Westmeath community where he grew up.

The couple initially applied for planning permission for a one-off home on a site his father gave them and that has been in the family for decades. However, despite being reared in the area and wanting to settle down and raise a family there, their application was refused as planners said they had not demonstrated enough need.

Disappointed, but still eager to settle down and raise their family in the locality where he grew up, Tom and his wife purchased another site pending planning permission nearby and close to their children’s school.

Although their application included support letters from the school and local sports clubs, highlighting their contribution to the community, the family were turned down again on the grounds that they did not meet local needs criteria.

“The second site was only 2km from where I was born and reared. It’s around the corner from where the kids go to school. Their school friends live within a kilometre of each other. We had letters of support from the local soccer and camogie clubs, and the school. The secondary school I went to, where we are planning on sending the kids, also provided a letter of support. We couldn’t give any more letters. There was something about the stipulations for a one-off house and we met a lot of them, including returning emigrants, local to the area, having family living there – we ticked every box.

Tom says that in both the areas he and his wife have sought planning permission other people have built one-off houses. Some, he feels, would not have the same links to the locality.

“It is frustrating enough. I don’t usually get stressed out about much. It’s just a pain and it’s ‘what do we do next?’. We could buy a house in an estate but we don’t want to. I grew up rural and the girls have grown up rural.

“There are houses being built in these areas. It’s not like there are houses 30 years old and no new ones. In one of the areas, several houses have gone up and over the years people who never lived in the area have built houses there.”

Speaking just weeks after the government published ‘Our Rural Future’, its plan for the post-Covid recovery and revitalisation of rural communities, Tom said that the planning guidelines need to be urgently reviewed if that is to become a reality.

“I loved the fact that a couple of weeks ago the message went out: ‘Come on down from Dublin and we’ll get you all sorted in rural Ireland’. If only they’d sort out the people that live there. I don’t mind anyone coming down, but there has to be a level playing field for everyone.”

Michael’s (not his real name) experience is similar to Tom’s.

He applied for planning permission on a family-owned site close to his parents’ home, where he grew up, in an area designated high amenity, although the site in question is around 1km from the nearest lake.

He has also applied for planning twice and was turned down both times for not meeting the local needs criteria, despite providing proof that he helps an elderly relative carry out work on his farm and a letter from his parents’ doctor supporting his application.

Although currently renting a house 20km away, Michael and his wife decided to send their children to the same primary school he went to as they were confident they would be able to build on the site his family gave them. The school and a local sporting club that Michael played for and coached provided letters of support.

His frustration at being unable to build in the area where he grew up and wants to raise his family is exacerbated, he says, by the fact that other locals have been granted planning permission for one-off houses nearby.

His anger isn’t directed at his neighbours, he stresses, but at the seemingly arbitrary planning process.

“To my knowledge, two people have built here in the last five or six years and they are actually closer to the lake. Fair play to them. If I never get it, I am not against people having it, no way.

“The only thing is we are desperate to get planning as the where we are renting we have to get out of in a few months. We are under serious pressure. My only option is to put a mobile home there. We just can’t understand [how they come to their decision].”

Michael’s parents are retired and one of them has a number of underlying health conditions. If he is given the go-ahead to build a family home nearby, he will be able to care for them in the years ahead.

“One of my parents is over 70 and has a number of conditions and I have doctors’ letters sent in explaining that someone will have to be close to my parents. Maybe they don’t need it right at the moment, but in the next five years they might. These things can happen quickly and they will need support close by. I might be too far away, but to be honest I don’t know where I’ll be,” he said.