Annual Budget 2009 - Roscommon County Council

Division D | Development Management
D
Development Management
D01 Forward Planning
The Roscommon County Development Plan was adopted on 3rd June and came into effect on 30th June 2008.
As part of Objective 3 (Pg. 16 of County Development Plan), a priority schedule for Local Area Plans and Village
Design Statements was provided. These are to be completed during the lifetime of the Plan. As part of this process
the Village Design Statements for Ballyleague, Cootehall, Knockcroghery & Lecarrow commenced and were
finalised during 2008. The Village Design Statements have involved extensive public consultation and the feedback
from the Communities has been invaluable. It is proposed that the Tulsk Village Design Statement will be prepared
during 2009.
The Pre-Draft phase of the Local Area Plans for Monksland / Bellanamullia, Elphin, Roosky, Strokestown & Lough
Key began in September 2008 and it is intended that the statutory notice for these plans will be advertised in early
2009. It will then be a 35 week period until their adoption and the process will involve extensive public consultation.
Preparation of the Rural Design Guidelines for County Roscommon will now be carried out in-house in 2009.
D02 Development Management
The 2000-2007 Planning Acts and associated Regulations continue to be implemented by the Planning Section. In
2008 over 1500 applications were made to Roscommon County Council.
During the year, the scanning of all applications received was introduced and these documents are available on the
Council’s Website www.roscommoncoco.ie. The scanning of files back to 2001 will be complete by June 2009.
In addition, the Geographical Information System gPlan was introduced on the site. gPlan is a map based online
planning enquiry tool. It allows the user to query, locate, and interrogate planning applications through an interactive
map, enabling the user to interpret the spatial element of any application. Currently data back to 2005 is available.
Further historical information back to 2001 will be introduced during 2009.
D03 Enforcement
The Planning Enforcement Section enforces conditions attached to Planning Permissions granted by Roscommon
County Council or An Bord Pleanála and investigates complaints of unauthorised developments.
In 2008 to date 120 new complaints were received and investigated. To date 196 Warning letters under Section
152 of the Planning and Development Act have been issued and 41 enforcement notices have been served under
section 154.
Nine unauthorised development cases have been successfully prosecuted to date in 2008, with a number of other
cases are also at various stages of legal proceedings.
The planning enforcement section is also responsible for the collection of all development contributions attached
to permissions granted.
D04 Operation and Maintenance of Industrial Sites and
Commercial Facilities
The County Council is always looking to encourage industrial development throughout the County and uses the
funding available to promote County Roscommon to businesses.
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Roscommon County Council | Comhairle Chontae Ros Comain | Adopted Budget 2009 | For year ended 31st December 2009