Mr. Philip Moyles:

It arose during the objection phase. We had to get submissions in during the public consultation phase. After the first public consultation phase all the information is collated and shared with councillors. The chief executive officer then makes recommendations. The recommendation of the chief executive officer to the councillors was that the objectives should be removed from the county development plan. Alternatively, he recommended that if they were going to keep the objectives, then the distance should be taken out.

From our perspective, the whole idea of the no-fry zone was that we needed a distance set out. There was a reason we found ourselves in this situation with a fast food application only 35 m from schools in Greystones. The planning guidelines, although well intentioned, use terms such as "careful consideration" and "vicinity of". They are open to interpretation and that is what happened. There is a lack of consistency in planning at local level. The chief executive recommended that the objectives should come out. We countered that by providing councillors with all the information and the evidence we gathered from the studies in the USA and Scandinavia. We supported this with all the submissions from healthcare experts. The councillors could see that this was the right step forward and that putting in a no-fry zone of 400 m represented the minimum distance required for it to be effective. It was disappointing to hear the chief executive recommend that the provision come out. Luckily enough, the councillors showed leadership and took a courageous step forward. It was the first local authority in Ireland to do so. The councillors and Wicklow County Council were recognised at the Association for the Study of Obesity on the Island of Ireland conference two weeks ago for taking that step and setting the precedent.