Population increasing in wrong places, planners told

The Irish Times

Much of Ireland's recent population growth has been happening in the wrong places, with designated "gateway" cities and towns losing out to North American-style sprawl elsewhere, the Irish Planning Institute (IPI) heard yesterday. Addressing the institute's annual conference in Kilkenny, IPI president Henk van der Kamp said growth since 2002 in many counties with such gateways was well below the national average, while it was well above the average in some counties without gateways. Only four of the 10 counties with gateway growth centres designated under the 2002 National Spatial Strategy - Galway, Louth, Offaly and Westmeath - had recorded above-average population growth, while 12 counties without gateways had thrived.

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