1.0 Introduction
The Assembly welcomes the inclusion of the first chapter of the draft plan, which provides an overview of scene setting matters including the vision, objectives and overarching principles, and the review process and statutory context.
The inclusion of Section 1.3 of the Draft Plan, which documents the requirement to review or vary the CDP following the making of the RSES, is a welcome addition in contextualising this plan review. This is supported through the documentation of policy considerations outlined at Section 1.5, including Section 1.5.1 and 1.5.2 relating to the National Planning Framework and the RSES respectively. It is considered that Section 1.5.2 could be strengthened through emphasising the legislative context and planning policy hierarchy with which the County Development Plan is required to be consistent with, including a clear indication that the Laois County Development Plan is required to be consistent with the development objectives specified in the RSES. It is noted that the text of this section refers to figure 1.5, however this text seems to more aptly refer to figure 1.2. In addition, the sentence referring to the making of the RSES, should remove reference to the adoption of the RSES.