New Laois housing estates should be devoid of ‘no man’s land’
Cllr Caroline Dwane Stanley
NEW housing developments in Laois should include the provision that there be no gaps or parcels of land left between the fresh development and any existing estate.
The proposal was put forward by Cllr Caroline Dwayne Stanley, who highlighted the unsafe corridors of litter and anti-social behaviour that spring up in these little, thin ‘no man’s land’ between estates.
In an opening response to her motion, a representative for the planning section of the council said: "Boundaries between housing estates are determined by a case-by-case basis for the planning application process, having regard to the relevant policies and objectives of the county development plan. Assessing such applications, the planning authority seeks to balance the requirement for the appropriate boundary treatment and maintenance of existing hedgerows, where feasible, in the interests of residential amenity and biodiversity."
Cllr Dwayne Stanley said the issue with these 'no man’s lands' first came to the surface around the time of the financial crash between 2007 and 2009, when many housing estates that had begun construction were left unfinished or, in some places, in a state of disrepair, eventually giving rise to gaps when new housing sprang up around them.
Cllr Dwayne Stanley said that in most cases of the existing planning system, a few yards’ gap was left between the boundaries of each estate, not even fenced off but walled off by cheap wooden pickets that people can easily break through to get at the corridor in between.
The councillor made the case that these should first go right up to each other, for example, that there be no gap between properties and that these boundaries are not made of such cheap, easily pliable material.
Cllr Dwayne Stanley said: "Where you have anti-social behaviour in some of these areas, you are looking at, maybe, a four or five-metre gap, which is a substantial size. You have rubbish being dumped between these areas and the latest one we seen highlighted recently was in relation to Colliers Court and the new development across from there, Dargan Woods, and the whole boundary area there has become a dumping ground."
The cost of clearing out one such 'no man’s land’ dumping ground came to €40,000.
