Sugar beet? The field next to me was full of it last year and says you are wrong. Perhaps you should go to the countryside sometime.

Hedgerows? What do you think surrounds the one-off houses? As I say, there's nothing as sterile as a field of crops.

No argument about septic tanks, as I say, it's a matter for regulation. There's a solution to every problem, no matter the expense. The solution should be imposed.

This habitat (hedgerows) is an important reservoir for native plant diversity. Fieldwork revealed 144 species of plants of which 99 were native Irish species. Typical native hedgerow plants include hawthorn, ash, blackthorn, elder, wild rose, holly, cow-parsley, false oat, lords and ladies, cleavers, herb-robert, wood avens, hogweed and lesser celandine. The dominant tree is the non-native sycamore. Other more rarely occurring hedgerow plants are crab apple, oak, hazel, primrose, dog violet and ground ivy.
The condition of hedgerows ranges from species rich, intact hedgerows to remnants which contain few native species. Management is the key factor in determining their quality and management is urgently required to ensure their survival. Principal threats to hedgerows are building and road construction.

More than three-quarters of land designated for housing in Dingle town and surrounding areas during the economic boom is to be dezoned.
Under a new area plan for most of the Dingle Peninsula, Kerry Co Council is proposing to reduce the amount of already-zoned land from 195 acres to 45 acres.

However, there is still some pressure on the council to retain residential zoning in Dingle for parcels of land or to rezone other land as residential. The owner of 11 acres at The Grove, Dingle, for example, is seeking to retain residential zoning for the land to meet the housing needs of an extended family.

However, senior planning engineer Paul Stack voiced concerns that some of the land could be used for tourism and leisure purposes, or a caravan park, which would be suitable in a scenic area.

The issue arose during a special meeting to consider a new Dingle local area plan for 2012 to 2018, which would be used as part of the future planning process for large tracts of land in and around Dingle town for housing.

A "dezoning" process is currently underway in Dingle and other towns in Kerry. More than 5,000 acres in the county, excluding the urban areas of Tralee, Killarney and Listowel, were zoned for housing, with only a quarter of the land being serviced for development.

Kerry councillors zoned enough land for 61,269 housing units — about six times more than what was needed for the population, according to data from the Department of Environment.

The amendments to the new Dingle plan, decided by councillors, will be published later this month and will be put out for a four-week period of public consultation. It is hoped to bring the plan back before the council in June.

Council management has stated that future residential zonings in Dingle will only be considered on infill land, or brownfield sites, or on lands close to existing residential areas.

Take a particular bow Clare Cork and especially Donegal

I stand corrected - it is possible that sugar beet may be grown in Ireland
http://www.irisheconomy.ie/index.php/20 ... een-saved/
http://www.askaboutireland.ie/reading-r ... e-farming/

It definitely is not grown in any quantity
People often refer to Fodder Beet as Sugar Beet -they are virtually the same

In relation to hedgerows around one off houses - they are in the vast majority are non native plants - Leylandia, Beech etc
I have never seen a species rich hedgerow planted around a house

IMHO industrial production of crops should be allowed provided some areas are kept.

The real problem with septic tanks is not the regulations as they stand rather enforcement. We are great in this country for regulation but brutal on enforcement.

Do people think there is overzoning - or underzoning?
There seem to be different people who argue different positions.

Doing work in the environs of cities, I do know that there is massive pressure by people who want to build their own large house on a big field. It is bad for the environment - and degrades the spaces between towns, increases traffic, reduces the quality of potential services, makes it bad for pedestrians etc. etc.
For people who are against "local needs" clauses - what do you propose? A free for all?

How about no discrimination based on where you are from or grew up.

That's fine, and there are questions as to the nature of the legality of the existing - but there does need to some way of controlling building in the countryside. What I see is hundreds of houses in estates in commuter villages which are not being sold, and at the same time people building one off housing next to all that on the basis of a "housing need".

What I think is needed is an extremely in-depth proof requirement to prove that there is a housing need by a given individual in an area and that nothing in the area available for sale meets the requirements.

You are confusing 'like' with 'habitat'. I don't like leylandii either, but they provide an excellent nesting habitat and winter protection for birds.

I suggest you haven't looked too hard for species rich hedgerows around houses. I also suggest you should look again at what passes for hedgerows maintained by farmers at the insistence of councils. Pathetic buzzcut mounds of dead and dying trees over-run with bramble. Oh, but wait, we can't have the cars of those urban dwellers scratched as they speed from town to town.

..

Different features of a hedgerow will be important to different species. The more diverse in composition a hedgerow is the more species it is likely to support due to a diversity of flowering and fruiting times. In general, native hedge plants such as blackthorn Prunus spinosa, hawthorn Crataegus monogyna, hazel Corylus avellena, dogwood Cornus sanguinea and field maple Acer campestris will support many more species than non-native plants such as garden privet, Ligustrum ovalifolium, leylandii and sycamore Acer psedoplatanus. Older hedgerows often contain a large amount of dead wood and plant litter within the structure of the hedge and can provide a valuable habitat for many invertebrates (which in turn will attract predators such as bats, shrews and birds) and cover for small mammals. Hedge bases are an important feature and provide a buffer zone to protect root systems and which can be an important habitat in its own right.

Management practices are crucial to the maintenance of a healthy hedge beneficial to wildlife: hedge laying, where the layed stems die off as the new shoots grow provides a source of dead wood. Coppicing, where stems are cut just above the ground, can provide a new lease of life to seriously damaged hedgerows. The timing of management is important to get the best from a hedge and avoid disturbance to animals breeding or over-wintering. The cutting cycle will determine the availability of fruits and flowers in a hedge; typically a cycle of two to three years is most beneficial for wildlife.

What that suggests to me is that the one offs were more viable than the ghost estates.

How about looking at how things are sometimes done abroad. Developer buys a site & gets planning and subdivides the land. People buy the plots and tell the builder how they want their house built. (For this to work the planning would need to be different). No more lego houses and you get your own place to your spec. We have a real problem with the size of houses and apartments in Ireland. The only ones that seem to have decent sizes are one offs. That and the ability to spec your own house must be major reasons people go for them above legoland houses and apartments.

Too be fair i think i know that difference between 'like' and 'habitat'
Non native species support very little ecology - fact



http://www.hedgelink.org.uk/index.php?id=26

Last time I looked, the field maple (Acer campestris) was non-native here. On the other hand, some species of privet is reckoned to probably be native in some areas (without consulting Webb, I cannot be sure whether it is the species you have mentioned).
Which goes to show, while agreeing with your general thesis, one of the difficulties involved in using reference works from the island next door!
In fact, IIRC, they have many many more native species than we have, both plants and animals.

Last time I looked, the field maple (Acer campestris) was non-native here. On the other hand, some species of privet is reckoned to probably be native in some areas (without consulting Webb, I cannot be sure whether it is the species you have mentioned).
Which goes to show, while agreeing with your general thesis, one of the difficulties involved in using reference works from the island next door!
In fact, IIRC, they have many many more native species than we have, both plants and animals.