Rezoning to facilitate 30,000 Tullamore population by 2020

A masterplan to rezone lands to potentially more than double Tullamore"s population has been controversially approved by both Tullamore Town Council and Offaly County Council. The rezoning is being enacted by a variation to Tullamore and Environs Development Plan which was passed at special meetings of both bodies last week. The plan variation, which stemmed from a report by the County Manager that identified a lack of land zoned for certain purposes, was passed by five votes to three at Tullamore Town Council"s chambers, while it was passed by only one vote in Council chambers in Aras an Chontae. Objectors voted against the variation of the plan mainly due to concerns about development on land prone to flooding in the Grand Canal Quarter, one of five areas in the masterplan. Minister for the Environment John Gormley still retains the power to overturn permission being granted for such development. Tullamore town will now develop along the lines indicated by the variation to the town plan, including four separate 'Masterplans'. The Masterplans will include a collective total of 293 hectares of residential development, which will go towards housing Tullamore"s estimated 2020 population of 30,000. In 2006, Tullamore was estimated to have a population of circa 12,000 The plan variation was supported strongly at last week"s council meetings by Fianna Fail members on both County and Town Council. Labour councillors on the town council and Independent councillor Jody Coughlan also approved of the plan, while in the County Council Independent councillor Johnny Butterfield and PD Fergus McDonnell also supported the plan. Fine Gael members on both councils disagreed with the action being taken, as did Independent County Councillors Dervill Dolan, Tony McLoughlin, John Carroll and Eddie Fitzpatrick. Cllr Dolan, who has been an opponent of the Grand Canal Quarter masterplan since it was revealed late last year, said he was in favour of 99 percent of the plan, but couldn"t support the zoning of a floodplain. At the meetings councillors passed an amendment to the plan variation that says all flood defences or ground raising work must be complete before any development can take place. Town councillor Johnny Flanagan withdrew from the meeting at its outset, as his company the Flanagan Group is behind a proposed €30 million development in the Grand Canal Quarter masterplan, for which Offaly County Council as sought Government funding. Despite OPW advice that development should be avoided on floodplains, Director of Services Declan Kirrane said an OPW Flood Risk and Management Study had been fully heeded by the council when drawing up the plan.