Focus needed on Slane bypass issue

Dear sir - The €2.25 billion stimulus package announced last week by Minster Brendan Howlin has been heralded as a much-needed boost to employment with the added advantage of delivering vital capital infrastructure projects to communities nationwide. Some €850 million has been allocated to roads, and projects which are "shovel-ready" will now be completed under this investment plan. These include the N17/N18 Gort to Tuam motorway, bypassing Clarinbridge, Claregalway and Tuam and the M11 Enniscorthy bypass. This announcement was cold comfort for the people of Slane. If An Bord Pleanála had granted permission for the Slane bypass, our community would truly have had cause to celebrate this spending splurge on roads, as our bypass would have been one of the included schemes. Unlike the other projects going ahead in order to shave a couple of minutes off journey times, the Slane bypass is about saving lives. It is important to note that the board of An Bord Pleanála did not object in principle to the selected route for the Slane bypass but rather that alternative options had not been exhausted, in particular an HGV ban. A truck ban has been vociferously touted by objectors to the scheme as the panacea for Slane's traffic problems. Objectors, who, despite acknowledging the serious road safety issue in our village at the oral hearing into the scheme, are now remarkably silent since permission was refused last March. Meanwhile the heavy traffic trundles relentlessly through Slane and the people who actually live here wait for the next accident to happen. Since the refusal we have met with Meath County Council. They have indicated that they are continuing with work towards a new application for a bypass of Slane. They have also commissioned a comprehensive analysis into the feasibility of an HGV ban in Slane in line with An Bord Pleanála's direction and also requested by the Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar immediately after the negative decision as part of a wider assessment of the next steps to be taken to resolve the situation. Despite these moves, Meath County Council has intimated that the reality is the possibility of a bypass for Slane is now some years away. Once again our community finds itself in limbo as we wait to see what will be the next step in a process that has dragged on some 30 years and has seen 22 people killed. We now call on Meath County Council to release the report on the viability of an HGV ban in Slane without further delay and bring some clarity to this red herring once and for all. We are also calling on Minister Shane McEntee, Deputy Regina Doherty and Deputy Dominic Hannigan to use their influence with Ministers' Howlin and Varadkar to ensure that funding from this stimulus package is used to get the Slane bypass back on the agenda and into the planning process without further delay before someone else loses their lives in our village. Yours, Michele Power, Bypass Slane Campaign, Slane Cottage, Drogheda Road, Slane.