asked the Minister for the Environment if, with a view to avoiding the wasteful rundown of existing shopping centres and unnecessary expenditure on new shopping complexes on which public moneys have frequently to be expended on access roads and other services, he will initiate in co-operation with local authorities a scheme to encourage the preservation of traditional shopping areas, including in such schemes ample off street parking; and, if not, why.
Written Answers. - Shopping Areas.
359.
Responsibility for the overall planning and development of their area rests with the local planning authority and their objectives are set out in the development plan of their area. It is a matter for this authority in preparing or reviewing their plan to carry out such surveys as may be necessary to assess the needs of the community in the area of physical planning, including the provision of shopping facilities. Development plans usually contain provisions for the regulation of traffic, the provision of public parking and the improvement of access to existing shopping areas and, where new housing developments are taking place, for the provision of adequate shopping facilities with ancillary car parking in the immediate vicinity of the new development areas.
In so far as Dublin City is concerned, the development plan, which is currently under review by Dublin Corporation, indicates that it is the planning authority's policy to facilitate improved access to existing central shopping areas by public transport and to secure the provision of additional short term parking facilities adjacent to shops. The planning authority also propose to seek, in co-operation with the Garda, the exclusion of vehicular traffic for some shopping streets in central areas and generally to facilitate pedestrian movement within and between the shopping areas. It it also the policy of the planning authority to strengthen existing shopping centres in suburban areas and that shopping facilities to serve new residential areas will be grouped in convenient locations related to the estimated shopping requirements of the areas they serve, adequate provision for car parking and access for goods delivery to be required.