Explain the importance of planning strategies in rural

settlement planning.
Introduction:
Counter-urbanisation occurs when people who work in the
city opt for a home in the countryside.
With the countryside being repopulated in many areas, the issue
of planning has become a very live concern.

Peoples reasons for living in rural areas

People chose to live in rural areas as they can build the house
of their dreams; as a result many farmers suffering from
declining incomes have supplemented their incomes by
selling sites.
Housing in urban centres has become extremely expensive in
recent years and due to the cheap building and buying of
property in the countryside, in current economic times, this
has been a major pull factor to rural areas.
However, people are concerned about the impact of one-off
rural housing on the environment.
Septic tanks may affect ground water, especially in limestone,
and this may have serious implications for the health of
animals and people.
Dispersed development also leads to a great number of
telephone and ESB poles criss-crossing the countryside,
ruining the natural scenery.

NDP 2000-2006
Sustainable rural development is the need to ensure that
communities survive and grow in economic and social terms
having regard for the impact on the areas future
environmental quality.
The National Development Plan (NDP) 2000-2006 aimed to
create equal opportunities between urban and rural areas,

where rural enterprises could be competitive with urban

enterprises.
The NDP initiated renewal projects such as improving road
infrastructure between urban and rural areas, developing
tourist potential in certain areas and providing support for
village enterprises through training schemes and grants.

NDP 2007-2013
The latest NDP has allocated further funding for projects similar
to those undertaken in the first NDP.
To aid the development of rural areas, the Department of
Community, Rural Affairs and Ghaeltacht Affairs are
targeting the diversification of non-agricultural activities for
farm families, encouragement of rural tourism and the
development of a Countryside Recreation Strategy.
LEADER programmes provide approved local groups with
funding from the EU and endorses the Irish government to
implement business plans for their own rural areas.

County Development Plans

Country Development Plans are plans created to provide
proper planning and sustainable development in each county.
Government policies require that planning must be granted
for sufficient new housing to meet the needs of the rural
population.
Planning authorities support the provision of rural housing
because of the strong tradition of people living in rural areas.
Country councils zone certain areas of their respective
countries into specific categories for the purpose of rural
housing.
Councils also provide design guidelines because bad design
can intrude on the landscape and can cause planning
permission to be refused.