Council ‘ambitious’ with population projections for Virginia - Assembly

Cavan County Council was told it was being "overly ambitious" with population projections for Virginia by the Northern and Regional Assembly in the latter's submissions to material amendments to the draft County Development Plan 2022-28.

The NWRS expressed an opinion that the population increase envisaged for Virginia over the lifetime of the plan was "overly ambitious" and "may not be realistic or achievable" unless there is an increase in the Waste Water Treatment provision locally.

In 2016, Virginia had a population of 2,648, growing to around 3,079 in 2022. The CDP envisages that number increasing by about nine per cent to 3,510 over the next five years.

The lack of wastewater treatment capacity in Virginia has repeatedly scuppered plans for multi-unit housing developments in the town.

Virginia is designated as a Tier 2 ‘Large Town’ in the Cavan County settlement hierarchy.

The council acknowledges that both the Bailieborough Regional Water Supply Scheme, which serves the town, and the waste water treatment plant, are over capacity, and that these issues must be addressed before further development in the town can occur.

Irish Water, working in partnership with Cavan County Council, is currently progressing the design of an upgrade to the Virginia Wastewater Treatment Plant.

In total the NWRS made seven points, with only some going to vote. Cllrs supported a recommendation to refer to Virginia in the CDP as a ‘Place of Strategic Potential’ (16 in favour); and that the Virginia Master Plan should be amended to be consistent with the text in respect of timelines for completion of Masterplans.

However elected representatives (16) opted to make "no change" to a submission asking to amend wording to confirm the commitment to prepare the Local Transport Plans and that it shall be done within the timeframes specified in each Master Plan.

The council argued that this was "not realistic" as a lot of what was determined with the implementation of LTPs was "outside our control".

Separately, a submission from the Office of Public Works (OPW) sought to include in the CDP that guidance be provided with regard to the management of surface water and groundwater on development sites around the county.

Remit for the use of Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) techniques for managing surface water run-off has been included, with the council to encourage the use of materials and engineering solutions that optimise natural surface water drainage going forward.