A local Councillor is calling on the Department of Planning to apologise for downgrading Longford's growing population predictions.
Seamus Butler claims the Department and the Office of the Planning Regulator misled the local authority, informing to them to dezone lands which would have been used for residential housing.
Preliminary census figures show Lonford's population has risen by 14% since 2016 however the Fianna Fail representative says the OPR stated Longford would not reach this current population until 2031.
While it presents an exciting future Councillor Butler is worried of the implications it will have on education, healthcare and other services locally.
Local representatives now hope to meet with the Planning Minister Peter Burke and Coucnillor Butler says the county development plan must be revisited without outside interference.
''Consistently with our development plans over the last 20 years, we have been estimating in Longford county council our growth in population. However, the department and also the office of the planning regulator have downgraded those predictions. To this end, we want to revisit it and we want to have not just residential but we have to look at all the other implications of such a high growth rate and we will be using these figures to realign our current county development plan.''
