Green Party Senator, Déirdre de Búrca has responded to the recent decision of Wicklow County Council to grant planning permission for a large out-of-town shopping centre and other development to Zapi near Charlesland, Greystones, saying she believes that the original zoning process behind the decision raised some very serious questions.

“In the light of the recent Primetime expose of how questionable planning decisions are being made by elected representatives around the country, I think the zoning process behind the proposed Zapi development needs to be closely looked at and questioned” she said. “I was a councillor on Wicklow County Council when out of nowhere, and at the last minute, this proposal for a massive out-of-town shopping centre was advanced by a number of local Greystones councillors. The planners were completely against the proposal as they argued that it would be in breach of national and regional retail guidelines. However, the local councillors pushed ahead and with the support of others they rezoned the land”.

De Búrca says she was very uncomfortable with the fact that the developer, Zapi, had met on several occasions with local councillors to hammer out a “deal” in relation to the site. “They never approached me or many other councillors on Wicklow County Council which meant that there was no transparency to the process” she says. “The local councillors made a lot of noise about what a good deal they had got for the town of Greystones but when you examine the deal, the developers have had to give very little to the town in return for the sweetheart zoning deal they got”.

The Green Party Senator says that the sites being provided by Zapi for a Garda station, recycling centre and primary school as part of the overall development will not come free to the council. Instead she says that the council will be charged for the sites at close to market rates. In return she claims the developers have been successful in having the original zoning for a business park and a school being changed to a more lucrative zoning for a massive shopping centre and upmarket residential development. “This happened although the planning advice was that no further zoning for housing was needed in Greystones over the next five years as there was more than sufficient zoned land already” she says .

“I am uncomfortable with the way in which the deal was made between local councillors and the developer, and introduced into the Greystones Local Area Plan process at the last moment” says De Búrca. “In my opinion this was not good or transparent planning and leaves many serious questions unanswered. It smacks of murky backroom deals, something that should be a thing of the past given all that we have learned through the planning tribunals”.

For further information please contact
Senator Déirdre de Búrca on (086) 806 14 50

Filed under:
Press Release by Deirdre