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Classification of settlements
The current set-up of the template does not reflect reality, and I hope we can find a way which does not "jar" every time someone who actually knows Fingal looks at it. The main problem is the "towns" section - in November last year, this jumped from 2 (Balbriggan + implictly Swords) to more than 12, and still has too many members. Part of the problem is the use of population as a qualification - but a town is more than a place with a certain number of people - by such a definition, there would be buildings in parts of the USA, China and the former USSR, and possibly Scandinavia and Latin America, which would qualify as villages or even towns. Historically Fingal had just a few towns, primarily coastal - Balbriggan, Swords, Skerries, and Rush. Donabate and Lusk, Naul and Garristown, Castleknock, Howth, Sutton, Baldoyle, etc. - these were well-established villages. Then the big housing-estate-led suburbs grew, but it takes more than many streets of housing to make a town. There is no problem here with common understanding - locals in Howth, Castleknock and Lusk, for example, talk about "the village" and would find being classed as a town quite odd. So, can we have something like three tiers - Towns, Large suburbs, Villages and small suburbs?
For comparison South County Dublin had three tiers in its plans (1: Tallaght, 2: Clondalkin, 3: other population centers). Not that councils can magically make a town or village either, but the classification is interesting. SeoR (talk) 12:17, 3 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]
