Submission on County Development Plan
That the County Development Plan include policies to support delivery of rural based eco tourism projects in appropriate locations.
These objectives and policies should be reflected within the chapter dealing with tourism but also consistently supported in relevant chapters such as Rural enterprise and Rural Development.
Kildare is well placed to realise tourism opportunities within this sector, the ambition to grow tourism within the County and particularly to build on the acknowledged assets of Kildare town as the key tourism destination of County would be greatly enhanced through delivery of projects that meet the demand for a low carbon impact, agri eco based experience. This growing sector of the tourism market is currently not being met in County Kildare or facilitated through policies of plan. These projects should be consistent and embrace the policies and objectives of bio diversity, agri diversification and support potential just transition proposals that align to objectives in the County Dev Plan.
The delivery of a diverse range of bed night opportunities is recognised as an essential element of the offering in all key tourism Counties and would enhance the profile of County as a tourism destination. The current plan supports the conversion of vernacular farm buildings for alternate tourism uses. This fails to appreciate the importance of appropriately located bed nights, the success of tourism offerings is dependent on bundling a number of complimentary experiences for the visitor, therefore it is important that the bed night supply be strategically located to areas where these tourism attractions exist, not always aligned to locations of vernacular buildings. Therefore the inclusion of the following statement should be included in our CDP.
While the Council considers that camping sites should be located on appropriately zoned land within established/or adjacent to existing settlements, small scale camping sites may be appropriate to complement tourism assets in rural locations within or adjacent to existing settlements/attractions. The planning authority may facilitate proposals for camping/ glamping sites which support rural tourism initiatives subject to proper planning and sustainable development.
Acknowledging the potential alternate uses that such rural tourism developments might facilitate, it is important that the plan clearly restrict the use of these developments for anything other than tourism sector. Such bed night offerings would be dedicated to tourism investment and therefore help to deliver a supply of competively priced bed nights that will enhance the attractiveness of County as a tourism destination, currently the bed night offerings in County are well over subscribed and support both the commercial and tourism sector, indeed our proximity to Dublin results in much of the County bed night capacity being used by business related demand, thus leaving further shortage of supply and lack of competition for Tourism market.
The National objective to realise a significant modal shift in transport towards cycling should be supported by the development of accommodation designed to specifically support this form of transport. The low carbon footprint lends itself ideally to a more rural range of offerings, that should have the added value of being relatively less expensive than urban based accommodation.
Significantly the Counties more traditionally associated with tourism within Ireland have already embraced this concept successfully and I attach some examples that may help inform policy development for the County Kildare Development Plan.
https://www.wildatlanticcamp.ie/glamping-cabins/#
Kind Regards
BNM-Ex365-dsc-ex
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Suzanne Doyle
Member of Kildare Newbridge Municipal District
Kildare County Council