Murphy warns on continued reliance on tiger-era planning strategies as Minister Hogan publishes updated Retail Planning Guidelines.

Press Release | 2nd May 2012

The publication of new Retail Planning Guidelines in Ireland is a cause for concern to those who value local, independent retailers as a vital part of a town’s economy and community life, says Independent TD for Kildare North Catherine Murphy.  The growth of lage-scale retail outlets and retail parks across the country has had a devastating effect on traditional town centres throughout Ireland, particularly in medium sized towns, and the failure of the new guidelines to reduce limits on the size of these developments in areas like Kildare continues to undermine the viability of the Main Street as a focal point for communities, according to the Deputy.

“Towns like Naas have seen huge retail developments spring up at the expense of long serving, local retailers. Naas, with a population of just over 20,000, now hosts Ireland’s largest Tesco store as well as two of the large DIY retailers, and many other chain retailers. Whilst many argue that these large developments create jobs, the reality is often different. The resultant closure of local retail outlets simply means job displacement rather than creation in many cases.

“The updated guidelines do not significantly address this problem. In fact, the very weak role that regional-level planning is given means that the enormous Hypermarkets will now be allowed to develop along areas like the M50 and greater Dublin hinterland, very close to medium sized towns like Leixlip, Celbridge and Maynooth. Existing small local retailers are already losing the footfall needed to remain above water, while new ventures cannot get enough business to get off the ground. Many community cores now have several vacant shops – this makes no sense for prime retail spaces located in the heart of towns.

“Given that we have 88 planning authorities in Ireland at the moment, I have to cast doubt on our ability to restore a town-centre planning focus to the heart of our development guidelines. To achieve a real level of sustainable development I would encourage the Minister to develop a greatly expanded role for regional planning so we can take a wider, consolidated view of how we develop our communities – particularly in relation to retail planning.”

Retail Planning Guidelines, May 2012 (Department of Environment)

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Posted by admin on May 2, 2012. Filed under homepage,Kildare,Latest News,National Issues,Planning & Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry