The National Monuments Service welcomes the opportunity to comment on this draft plan and sees it as an important element of our ongoing regular contact with your council through the planning referral system.

Archaeology is referred to frequently in the draft plan and there is a clear awareness of the importance of the county’s archaeological heritage as an educational, tourism, recreational and cultural resource. In addition, the procedures for referral of relevant planning applications to this Department, in accordance with the requirements of planning legislation, are acknowledged. The usefulness of sources of archaeological information provided to the public by this Department (notably the Record of Monuments and Places and the online Historic Environment Viewer), is also mentioned. It will be important to ensure that the existing policies and objectives relating to archaeology are kept in the new County Development Plan.

The issue of proposed extensions to medieval graveyards is referred to in the draft plan and with regard to this issue, the National Monuments would like to make the following observations.

The question of extensions to medieval burial grounds is a cause for concern for a number of reasons. Firstly, they can pose a direct threat to archaeological remains. Early-Christian and Medieval graveyards were often larger in extent in the past than they are today. Many were enclosed in the nineteenth century, with parts of the original graveyard left outside the later wall. An extension close to or directly outside the graveyard wall will therefore be very likely to disturb burials and other archaeological remains associated with the original graveyard.

Historic graveyards, with their ancient structures, headstones and high bio-diversity value, have great charm and a very particular atmosphere, which along with the tradition of burial there and perhaps an association with a local saint, make their continued use understandably important to local communities. Modern extensions to them however, and the impact of the associated access roads, car parks, modern styles of headstones etc, can erode the very character that makes such places special to people. Some proposals submitted to this Service for example, envisaged extensions to graveyards, that would have been larger than the graveyards themselves and would have overwhelmed them.

It is therefore very important that policies and objectives in the County Development Plan should state that proposals for extensions which would be so large and/or so close to an existing historic graveyard, that they would endanger archaeological remains or fundamentally alter the amenity of the graveyard, will be discouraged.

To that end, existing policy objectives CPO 4.47 and 4.48 should be added to as follows:

CPO 4.47 Support the provision of burial grounds together with necessary extensions to existing burial grounds.

CPO 4.48 Archaeologically significant burial grounds will not be considered for extension if such an extension would constitute a proven risk to the archaeological heritage, by means of a direct impact on archaeological features and/or a negative impact on the amenity of the existing graveyard.

CPO 4.49 Protect and maintain historic graveyards within the County

Draft Westmeath County Development Plan 2021-2027 - Aighneachtaí

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