Mr. Philip Moyles:

At the end of the first consultation phase, just before the council voted, some of the Greystones councillors we worked closely with shared the recommendations from the chief executive with us. The chief executive reviews all of the objectives and then makes recommendations. His recommendation was that the no-fry zone objective, objective RT17, should be taken out of the Wicklow county development plan. If the councillors felt strongly that it should remain in the plan, he recommended that the distance of 400 m should be taken out.

We were clear with the Greystones councillors that if the distance was taken out, the zone would be meaningless. Our perspective was based on all the evidence we had obtained through the campaign. We would have been back to where we had been with the national planning guidelines. They are well intended but the wording is vague and open to interpretation. That is how there can be situations where a council can say that it has given consideration to how close a fast food outlet is-----