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NRA Trespass on Land
A Galway member of CaST’s national committee has had her land trespassed on by the NRA. She had sent a letter to the local authority refusing access to her land but despite this, six people
entered her land while a helicopter flew overhead. They neither informed her before or afterwards. When they had finished they moved on to her neighbour’s land. She was too intimidated and afraid to approach them.
Public Consultation a Sham.
CaST has long criticised the public consultation process. The PD/Fianna Fail government decided to build motorways and then sent out the NRA to consult with local communities. But the NRA has no intention of taking on board local objections as can be seen from the recent public enquiry into the Waterford Bypass. The project contains a section of road that is the start of the proposed N9 Waterford Dublin motorway. Initially, it was included as a 2-lane road but following a phone call from the NRA head-office it was upgraded to motorway standard.
In effect, this means that the NRA has already decided that the new Waterford Dublin motorway will go ahead and the form that it will take. But to residents on the path of the motorway, the NRA are claiming that the public consultation process is comprehensive and are encouraging locals to have faith in the planning process.
Full map of the road is available at www.sensibletransport.com
Public representatives sow confusion?
At the public meeting in Mullinavat on Monday September 3rd, the public representatives in favour of the motorway carefully avoided using the term motorway/dual-carriageway in their speeches. Instead, they referred to the need for upgrading the road, in particular, the Waterford Kilkenny stretch. This ambivalence has the effect of muddying the waters and so it is important to clearly state what upgrading means and what is meant by
motorway /dual-carriageway in the present context.
Upgrading means that when the project is completed, essentially just one National Primary road to Dublin will exist – the present one, a two-lane road, but improved, for example, to the general standard of the Kilkenny – Carlow or the Cashel-Cahir roads. Whereas the objective should be to use as much of the existing road as possible, it is accepted that some road through greenfield countryside will be necessary and in addition towns and villages will require bypassing. We will still end up with one road.
Motorway/dual-carriageway means that when the project is completed, a massive new 4-lane motorway through greenfield countryside will have been constructed and in addition, retention and possible upgrading of the existing National Primary road will accompany this. And so, we will end up with two roads.
Route corridor fiasco
The corridor options for the N52 at Mullingar are illustrated in the map below.
They run north south. When the emerging preferred route was announced,
however, it bore little relation to the corridor options, running diagonally in a north-east, south-west direction
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falling outside the footprint of all
three corridors and introducing a completely new spur in a north westerly direction to join the existing N52.
The developer of the road is Westmeath County Council. Halcrow Barry are the consultants.
Information Refusal
CaST has been requesting information from the NRA, the government and the local authorities so that we can understand the logic of the current motorway plans. So far, requests have been refused on the following grounds:
Cabinet Confidentiality, Commercial Confidentiality, Copyright law.
Sometimes we are offered the information but asked to pay more than £8000 for photocopying. The most common refusal, though, is on the grounds that the information does not exist. For example, CaST asked for any traffic data that showed that the motorways were necessary and the Department of the Environment admitted that none existed.
An Bord Pleanala plumbed new depths of trickery to avoid releasing transcripts of the Waterford Bypass oral hearing by claiming they were not in a position to do so since the copyright to these transcripts was the property of the stenographer. The stenographer was hired and paid by the Bord.
How will tolling affect you?
We do not yet know if the motorway from Waterford to Dublin will be tolled. But we do know that the NRA intends to toll the new Waterford Bridge. They are holding an oral hearing into tolling on Monday September 10th next. They are proposing to charge £1 per car each way. So a person from south Kilkenny working in the Industrial Estate and using the new bridge will pay £10 per week in tolls – about £500 per year. This will cost about £1000 of gross income. Nor will using the old Rice bridge and getting to work on time be an option. Due to tolling, traffic through the city will continue to grow, increasing from last year’s figure of 33,500 and reaching 40,000 vehicles per day in 2005, the year the new bridge is due to open; and a massive 50,000 vehicles per day in 2015. In the meantime, the new bridge will be operating way below its traffic capacity.
Registered Letters
a Month Away
People whose lands will be confiscated for the N9/N10 motorway can expect the registered letters to drop through their letterboxes in about 5 weeks. Then the process of preparing for the entry of the NRA bailiffs will gather speed. Judging by the experiences elsewhere, this will be a very traumatic day.
50 deaths allegation stands
Mr. Michael Egan of the NRA has accused farmers of causing 50 road deaths per annum by delaying the motorway projects. Farmers and others alike have furiously and rightly rejected this. At a meeting in the NRA offices in Naas on Tuesday August 28th with representatives from N9/N10 CaST groups, Mr. Egan was asked to withdraw this allegation but refused to do so. Dail deputies were requested at the public meeting in Mullinavat on Monday September 3rd to take the matter up with the NRA and to demand a retraction.
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Opposition deputies fail to show
A public meeting was held in Mullinavat on Monday September 3rd 2001. CaST had issued invitations to all the local and national politicians in Carlow/Kilkenny. The government deputies, John McGuinness and Liam Aylward were present as were a large number of county councillors. Notable for their absence, however, were the opposition deputies, John Brown and Phil Hogan of Fine Gael; the party was represented by
Councillor Dick Dowling. Councillor Mary White from Carlow represented the Green Party.
Only one public representative spoke out unequivocally against the N9/N10 motorway project – Councillor Mary White. All the other
public representatives supported the motorway.
Opposition Parties refuse to Act.
A strong and combative opposition is essential in a healthy democracy. Unfortunately for us, we do not have one in Ireland. At the public meeting in Mullinavat on Monday September 3rd, this was very apparent. With the exception of the Green Party representative, all the politicians were indistinguishable from each other. True, some representatives spoke of the need to do more studies and some emphasised the importance of compensation, but essentially, there was cross party support for the
motorway.
What if N9/N10 motorway not tolled?
An untolled motorway from Kilcullen to Waterford is a distinct possibility. The traffic projections appear too low to justify the cost of acquiring extra land and building and manning tolling plazas. Toll income would be too low. At this time the NRA refuses to make a definite statement.
Should we in Kilkenny and Waterford rejoice at this? Yes if you wish to turn these 2 cities into dormitory towns of Dublin. 100-mile commutes are not unusual in countries with motorway networks such as England. This is an example of how motorways change the demographics of a country. A motorway, initially 80% EMPTY will eventually fill up with induced traffic simply because it is 80% EMPTY, a phenomenon that has occurred over and over again in other countries – as indeed it has in and around the M50 in Dublin. Toll or no Toll - a lose lose situation!
Cover up uncovered
The oral hearing into the new bridge and Waterford City bypass collapsed spectacularly in its third week. The local authorities went ahead with the hearing despite knowing in advance that the plans for the bypass were in material contravention of the Waterford County development plan. Residents and their legal and planning experts uncovered the cover up during the second week of the hearing. Despite this the local authorities decided to continue but finally in the third week the hearing collapsed and was adjourned until November.
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