Even An Bord Pleanala in its recent annual report castigated the number of north- facing apartments given permission by many local authorities across the country -of course the back of those blocks is south-facing but thats not much good for the poor schmucks who have to rent these dreary sunless dogboxes

An bord pleanalas annual report drew the attention of purchasers to the fact that apartments need to be measured by the said purchasers as often the size of rooms can change as building progresses so they are different to the drawings and may even fall below the regulation sizes for bedrooms

as for councillors, many of them havent a clue about planning and have never been properly involved in a planning application, their usual practice is to hammer out a formula letter to a council opposing a development as a people -pleasing exercise
not knowing anything about it- hence two sentences

sometimes, but only sometimes, an bord pleanala or dublin city council will give a serious thrashing to a planning application
even to the point of saying that the application is sub-standard in design- that means someone at least read the bloody thing

planners are all powerful

across dublin city now plans are being drawn yet again for social housing north and soutside

the plans are to demolish what they built some years ago for families which proved thoroughly unsuitable and to try and get it right this time round

theres eating and drinking on this for a phd student writing about wasting public money

the big question is how sustainable is this kind of development

flat roofs i have seen being repaired on new developments

flat roofs in a wet climate ?

flat roofs in a country that is bringing in an eu directive on energy efficient buildings from next year ?

about a year ago i heard mary o rourke td reminiscing about the introduction of free secondary education

she spoke abou how huge numbers of schools had to be built fast to meet the demand

she than said, of course that brought about its own problems the flat roofs that leaked in due course and the hassle and the cost of repairs ………

As for your ‘examples’, it isn’t the planners who draw up layout of the developments, it is those in the employ of the developer. It’s a bit like moaning about the chef when the person who owns the restaurant orders them to use the cheapest ingredients. As for north facing apartments, surely if they have two sides and if one half faces north then the opposite side faces south, if not then there must be something in the way. Like another apartment perhaps?

Isnt it time to discuss bread and butter issues like planning and all it encompasses ?

When those 2 by-elections were being fought in Kildare and Meath it was coming across very strongly that dropping a few hundred houses into a site and ignoring the need for infrastructure of schools, local neighbourhood shops,public transport, and pavements between housing estates, left families with no option but to use the car always

This is very sixties and seventies “planning”
or no planning

It is pathetic that in the “new suburbs of dublin” across Leinster parents of young children are being asked not to register their children to start school this year but to wait till next year- they havnt enough places.

What passes for planning in this country is unbelievable

As secretary of a large residents association in an old established part of Dublin it is patently obvious that many plans that are lodged are very basic in design, many with north facing apartments -the sun never enters the apartment

Some of these are very poorly measured and the worst of them have to look for retention permission to completion as the builder has huge difficulty working out the crappy drawings

It is truly primitive

The focus shouldnt be on developers who will often go for the lowest common denominator, but on the planners who are supposed to uphold standards laid down……..

A small example of sloppiness is if a developer is building 75 units or more he is obliged to provide one unit as a creche
-very handy i’m sure for those living there

But if the developer isnt reminded of that in writing in the conditions of permission he is not obliged to do it.