Campaign for Sensible Transport - August 2001 Newsletter

Campaign for Sensible Transport

August 2001

No.2

www.sensibletransport.com
Email: sensibletransport@eircom.net

consultants, permission to access my land until I am satisfied that all the relevant information has been supplied to me and I have taken the time to consider it.

Please acknowledge this letter by return post.

Keep a copy of the letter. Affix the registered slip to the back of the copy. Keep securely.

Lock your gates. Refuse entry. Full details of procedures are available from Campaign for Sensible Transport (CaST) web-site www.sensibletransport.com.

Whose bright idea was this anyway?

You would have thought that in a democracy it should have been easy to find out who decided to build a massive motorway network – more than 500 miles on 25,000 acres of land. But this is Ireland and nothing is quite as it seems. One would have thought that the NRA would have made the decision after months of detailed traffic studies, analyses and projections. The Campaign for Sensible Transport has learned over recent weeks that the decision to build motorways was taken by the Cabinet Committee on Infrastructural Development and Public Private Partnership led by Bertie Ahern and including Charlie McCreevy, Mary Harney and Mary O’Rourke. The NRA say they did not recommend the building of motorways but that an organisation called Forfas did. We are unable to find any traffic data that might have been used. The only traffic data available, contained in the NRA 1998 Road Needs Study makes it clear that motorways are unnecessary. In fact many of the motorway sections will be 80% EMPTY in 20 years time based on the NRA’s own figures.

Safety Issue a Red Herring

The NRA claims that one of the reasons they are building the motorway is to improve road safety. While motorways are safer to drive on, road safety has nothing to do with the new road plans. Most accidents on Irish roads happen off the National Route network, and motorways will increase the traffic on these roads. This increase will happen due to the tolling of the

motorways, forcing drivers to use the free alternative routes. The NRA has admitted that it does not expect local traffic to use the new motorways due to the presence of tolls.

Feeling intimidated?

Life for those on either side of the motorway will never be the same again. In fact many people prefer that their houses were directly in the path of the motorway than beside it. Some people whose houses are located under the proposed motorway feel so intimidated that they are not making any objection in case the motorway moves 50 metres either way and they are left stranded on the edge of the road and faced with depreciated property, not a penny of compensation and a lifetime of misery.

NRA Board Member Resigns

Mr. Peter Langford, Chairman of Ove Arups, resigned from the NRA sometime in June. His company, Ove Arups are bidding for the East Link Tunnel project in Dublin and decided that Mr. Langford was of better use to them leading the bid team than as a member of the board. CaST has been calling for the resignation of Mr. Langford and others for some time and views this as a significant development.

Friday July 20th. 2001

NRA in a muddle

On Thursday, July 26th Mr. Tobin, Chief Executive Officer of the NRA, said on RTE’s Primetime that the 1998 National Roads Needs Study indicates that the country does not need 500 miles of motorways.
On Morning Ireland the previous week Mr. Michael Egan, Head of Corporate Affairs for the NRA claimed that in its conclusions the National Road Needs Study did claim that the country needs 500 miles of motorway.
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Government TDs Vote for Motorway

On June 13th Dail Eireann voted on a private members motion that called the current CPO system “fair and equitable” and that it “provides for appropriate compensation to all landowners”. It commended the NRA on its public consultation, planning and management of the roads programme. It concluded by saying that the tolling of roads was necessary.
All the Fianna Fail and Progressive Democrat deputies in the Dail at the time supported the motion, despite the fact that some of them spoke against the current road building plans. In some cases deputies stated locally that they were against motorways; but when it came voting they followed the government line.
Any one member of the Fianna Fail and Progressive Democrat parliamentary parties could stop this unnecessary motorway project by withdrawing their support for the government. Their failure to do so is an indication of the true loyalties of all and a clear sign of what we can expect in the next Dail.
Full text of the motion is available on the CaST website.

Landowners refuse access

All landowners in the constraints area should immediately send a registered letter to the County Secretary or Town Clerk as appropriate with the wording:
Please be advised that I am refusing you, your agents and