This article is from page 58 of the 2008-05-13 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 58 JPG
THE founder of the Irish Rural Dwellers Association, Jim Connolly has complained to County Manager, Alec Fleming about a verbal attack on him by a senior council planner.
Last month, Scottish-born planner Bill Sansum responding to a claim from Mr Connolly (below) that ru- ral dwellers are suffering from an imported “British ideology in the planning system” said that as a for- eign national and planner working in Clare, he took strong exception to this sort of “gratuitous, offensive and paranoid drivel’.
Mr Connolly has now written to Mr Fleming and the Ombudsman stating that any attack of this kind made by a local authority employee on a mem- ber of the public was in breach of the code of conduct for employees and brought the Council into disrepute ‘‘as well as shattering any confidence in the planning system vis-a-vis fair- ness and impartiality”.
“As a private citizen pursuing my
democratic right to lobby for legisla- tive change in planning and to public- ly challenge what the IRDA contend is a historically accurate planning ideology of forced urbanisation on rural Ireland which has its origins in the UK, I object in the strongest pos- sible terms to the personal attacks made about me in newspapers by planners employed by local authori- (one
“T also refer to the Ombudsman’s Guide to Standards of Best Practise for Public Servants which “clarifies citizens rights and the principles of good administration which include objectivity and impartiality and the need to avoid unfair discrimina- wo) eae
“It is not just a damning indictment of the planning process that indi- vidual planners are permitted to vent their spleen in the media on private citizens going about their legitimate, democratic pursuits, but confirms the behaviour of many planners as being personal, autocratic, arrogant and unaccountable.
In his comments last month, Mr Sansum said that by attacking local authority planners in this way and as a soft target, Mr Connolly did the IRDA no credit whatsoever.”
Mr Sansum said that the IRDA’s arguments in favour of loosening up the rules for more one-off hous- ing in rural areas don’t stack up as Government policy was moving the other way.”
He said that as a professional plan- ner, he was accountable to Irish law and Irish guidelines on planning.