CDP review 2022-2024
(last updated – 8th October 2024)
30 September 2024 – Making of Sligo CDP 2024-2030
The Sligo County Development Plan 2024-2030 was made (i.e. adopted) by the Elected Members of Sligo County Council on 30 September 2024, in accordance with the provisions of Section 12(10) of the Planning and Development Act 2000 (as amended).
The Plan was made with 303 out of the 308 Proposed Amendments. A total of 40 amendments were agreed by the Members contrary to the recommendations of the Office of the Planning Regulator (OPR).
Office of the Planning Regulator notified on 7 October 2024
The OPR has been informed of the above by means of a Notice issued under Section 31AM(6) of the Planning and Development Act. The OPR will conduct an independent assessment of the Plan. If it finds that the Plan is not consistent with any recommendations made by the Office, the OPR may issue a proposed draft Direction to the Minister, recommending that powers of direction be used to compel the local authority to address the matter.
The Minister decides whether to issue a draft Direction to the local authority, compelling it to take action.
Read about the Direction process on the OPR’s website - https://www.opr.ie/directions-process/
When will the new Development Plan come into effect?
Sligo CDP 2024-2030 will become operational six weeks after the date of adoption, i.e. on Monday, 11 November 2024.
Should the Minister issue a draft Direction to the Local Authority, those parts of the Plan subject to the draft Direction will not come into effect in the adopted Plan.
Interim availability of Sligo CDP 2024-2030
The Draft Plan and the Proposed Amendments continue to be available on Sligo County Council’s Consultation Portal at Draft Sligo County Development Plan 2024-2030 and Proposed Amendments Draft Sligo County Development Plan 2024-2030, respectively.
The following lists indicate which amendments have been agreed by the Elected Members, highlighting those which are contrary to OPR recommendations.
The Development Planning Unit of Sligo County Council is working on a consolidated version of the Sligo CDP 2024-2030 (Draft Plan + adopted Amendments + all other necessary corrections and updates). The timeframe for publishing the complete, final version of the Plan would be significantly affected if the Minister decides to issue a Draft Direction.
6 September 2024 – Third Chief Executive’s Report (Proposed Amendments) submitted to the Elected Members
A total of 90 valid submissions were received in relation to the Proposed Amendments by the consultation deadline of 5 July 2024. All submissions are available to read or download from https://consult.sligococo.ie/en/node/1569/submissions
On foot of the submissions received and having regard to the environmental assessments carried out in respect of the Proposed Amendments, the Chief Executive has recommended that the final Development Plan should be made with 260 of the 308 Proposed Amendments.
The Third Chief Executive’s report comprises three volumes and four appendices:
- Appendix 1 contains the Supplementary Infrastructure Assessment and Settlement Capacity Audit relating to the Proposed Amendments to Zoning (PAZ)
- Appendix 2 contains a list of the final Chief Executive’s Recommendations to the text of the Draft Plan
- Appendix 3 contains a list of the final Chief Executive’s Recommendations to zoning in the Draft Plan
- Appendix 4 contains a list of corrections to the Draft Plan.
What happens next?
At their Ordinary Council Meeting on 9 September 2024, the Members resolved to hold a special meeting on 30 September 2024 to consider the Third Chief Executive’s Report.
At the end of the special meeting, the Members will make the new Development Plan with or without all or any of the Proposed Amendments, except where a decision is made to accept certain Amendments subject to modifications of a minor nature.
7 June 2024 – Publication of Proposed Amendments to Draft CDP 2024-2030 for consultation until 5 July 2024
Sligo County Council has prepared a document listing the Proposed Amendments to the Draft Sligo County Development Plan 2024–2030 (CDP) and associated Addenda to the initial environmental reports.
The Proposed Amendments and accompanying documents are available for viewing and downloading from the Council’s Consultation Portal at consult.sligococo.ie
Written submissions or observations regarding the Proposed Amendments only may be made to the Planning Authority from 7 June to 5 July 2024 in the manner specified on the Consultation Portal.
May 2024 – Determination of requirement for SEA and AA of Proposed Amendments
The amendments proposed by the elected members of Sligo County Council on 15 and 22 April 2024, if made, would be material alterations of the Draft Sligo CDP 2024-2030.
The Planning Authority has determined that Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and Appropriate Assessment (AA) are required in respect of some of the proposed material alterations of the Draft CDP.
The Chief Executive has specified that a period of up to 6 weeks (counting from 22 April 2024, up to 3 June 2024) would be required to facilitate the two assessments.
The Proposed Amendments of the Draft CDP and the associated environmental assessments will be placed on public display after the completion of the assessments. A further notice will be published before that date.
22 April 2024 – Elected Members resolve to propose amendments to the Draft CDP
Following the receipt of the Chief Executive’s Report on 22 March 2024, the elected members of Sligo County Council held two Special Council Meetings on 15 April and 22 April 2024.
During the two meetings, the Chief Executive’s recommendations were presented to the Council and the elected members approved most recommendations for proposed amendments. The Members disagreed with the Chief Executive in some instances and decided – by resolution – to propose different amendments.
All the proposed amendments resulting from the agreed Chief Executive’s recommendations and from the resolutions passed during the two meetings are currently being screened (by specialist consultants) for potentially significant environmental effects.
If any of the proposed amendments are found likely to cause significant effects, it will be necessary to carry out Strategic Environmental Assessment and Appropriate Assessment. In such case, the County Council will issue a public notice indicating how long it will take to complete this procedure.
Once the environmental assessments are completed, the Proposed Amendments will be published on the Council’s Consultation Portal for a period of four weeks. The commencement of the last stage of public consultation will be advertised in print and online.
22 March 2024 – Second Chief Executive’s Report submitted to the Elected Members
During the 10 weeks of consultation on the Draft Sligo CDP 2024-2030 (available at https://consult.sligococo.ie/en/consultation/draft-sligo-county-development-plan-2024-2030 ), 211 valid submissions were received. There were 16 submissions from prescribed state or semi-state bodies and 195 submissions from individuals, community groups and other private or public organisations. Over 100 submissions contained rezoning requests.
The submissions can be viewed at https://consult.sligococo.ie/en/node/883/submissions
The Chief Executive’s Report on the submissions received during this second phase of public consultation was submitted to the elected members of Sligo County Council on 22 March 2024. The Second Chief Executive’s Report consists of two volumes, two appendices and two map sets:
If you need to print the Second Chief Executive’s Report, please select the following printer settings:
- A4 “portrait” and “print on both sides” for Volumes 1 and 2;
- A3 “landscape”, “print on both sides” and “flip on short edge” for Appendices 1 and 2;
- A3 “landscape” and one-side printing for Map Sets 1 and 2.
What happens next?
The elected members have up to 12 weeks to consider the Chief Executive’s Report. The Members may wish to amend the Draft Plan in accordance with the Chief Executive’s recommendations, propose additional amendments or make the Plan without any amendments.
If the members propose material alterations (amendments) of the Draft Plan, a further notice will be published. The proposed amendments will be placed on public display and there will be a final round of consultation (minimum four weeks), after an additional time required for carrying out SEA and AA of the proposed amendments.
13 October 2023 – Draft CDP 2024-2030 published for consultation
Sligo County Council has prepared a Draft Sligo County Development Plan (CDP) for the period 2024–2030 in accordance with Section 12 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 (as amended)
The Draft Plan and accompanying documents are available for viewing and dowloading from the Council’s Consultation Portal at consult.sligococo.ie
Written submissions or observations regarding the Draft Plan may be made to the Planning Authority from 13 October to 22 December 2023 in the manner specified on the Consultation Portal.
2 October 2023 – Members approve the Draft CDP 2024-2030 for publication
At their special meeting on 2 October 2023, the elected members of Sligo County Council considered the Draft CDP 2024-2030 and associated documents and approved the publication of the Draft Plan.
22 April 2022 – SEA Scoping completed
As the Sligo County Development Plan 2023-2029 will cover an area with a population exceeding 10,000 persons, Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is required by the Planning and Development (SEA) Regulations (as amended) to be undertaken on the Plan.
The SEA Scoping Report communicates and defines the scope of the environmental issues which are to be dealt with by the SEA, together with the level of detail to which it is intended to address these issues, as per the SEA Guidelines. It has been informed by SEA consultations with environmental authorities.
7 March 2022 - The Members of Sligo County Council directed the Chief Executive to prepare the Draft Sligo County Development Plan 2023-2029
After pre-draft consultation has been carried out, the role of the elected members is to consider the recommendations contained within the First Chief Executive’s Report on submissions and to issue a direction to the Chief Executive regarding the preparation of the Draft Development Plan.
The Planning Act states that any such direction “must be strategic in nature, consistent with the draft core strategy as well as taking account of the statutory obligations of the local authority and relevant policies and objectives of the Government or of any Minister of the Government”.
There are 34 sets of Chief Executive’s recommendations made in response to issues raised in the 90 submissions, with a total of 94 specific indications to be considered in the preparation of the Draft Plan.
The most significant commitments are:
- to prepare the Draft CDP 2023-2029 using the methodologies recommended in the Draft Development Plan Guidelines for Planning Authorities (DHLGH, August 2021);
- to carry out an infrastructural assessment of all existing zoned land in the County;
- to prepare a Local Transport Plan for the Sligo Regional Growth Centre Strategic Plan Area;
- to include strategic frameworks, zoning and objectives maps for all previously planned-for settlements in County Sligo (i.e. Sligo and Environs, Ballymote, Enniscrone, Tobercurry and the 32 villages subject to mini-plans)
- to carry out a Housing Need and Demand Assessment;
- to prepare an updated Landscape Character Assessment;
- to prepare a Renewable Energy Strategy.
At their ordinary meeting on 7 March 2022, the elected members of Sligo County Council noted the First Chief Executive’s Report and resolved to direct the Chief Executive to prepare the Draft County Development Plan 2023-2029.
The resolution can be viewed here – Members direct the CE to prepare Draft Plan - Signed Resolution - Item 13 - Ord. Meeting - 07.03.2022 (PDF) - 862 kbs
Stages completed to date
- Notice of Development Plan review was given to the public and the prescribed bodies on 30 July 2021.
- Pre-draft consultation took place from 30 July to 24 September 2021, based on an Issues Paper (PDF) - 11,156 kbs
- The First Chief Executive’s Report on submissions and observations was submitted to members on 22 December 2021 - Chief Executive’s Report (PDF) - 3,260 kbs
- Members directed the Chief Executive to prepare the Draft CDP 2023-2029 on 7 March 2022.
What happens next?
The Development Planning Unit of Sligo County Council is currently working on the preparation of the Draft Sligo County Development Plan 2023-2029. Once a Proposed Draft Plan is completed, it will be submitted to the elected members for approval prior to publication for the next stage of consultation.
Please visit this page again for updates.