Major row blows up over 'motorway through Duleek'

A full-scale row has blown up over proposed plans for an 80km motorway - the Leinster Orbital Route designed to link Drogheda to Navan to Naas - which councillors say would damage sensitive areas of Duleek, including a housing estate and the Commons. The National Roads Authority (NRA) has so far identified a 2km wide corridor from which the eventual route will be chosen. However, the corridor as it stands appears to include the High Meadows estate and the Commons. Land within the corridor area will be 'sterilised' and cannot be built on or altered until such time as the 'preferred route' is chosen. NRA officials had made a presentation on the motorway to a full meeting of Meath County Council. Some councillors welcomed the plan but others expressed misgivings about the existing sterilised corridor. Meath County Council officials were asked to write to the NRA asking them to visit the Slane Electoral Area Committee, which has six councillors as members, and clarify the plans as they pertain to the village of Duleek. When the Slane area members met last week, a letter from the NRA to officials in the council was read by the area manager, Tadhg McDonnell. It stated the NRA had concluded that the proposed motorway scheme was technically feasible, strategically beneficial and economically viable. "The conclusion of the work undertaken has been the identification of a corridor linking Drogheda to Navan to Naas as being the corridor that most closely reflects the ambitions set out in the various national and regional policy documents addressing the region that best achieves the outcomes required from such a route," it said. In one section of the letter, the NRA said the route was technically feasible. While there were numerous constraints throughout the corridor area and adjacent to the corridor, it had been identified that a proper and satisfactory alignment could be developed to deliver the project. "In addition, while there are environmental challenges to be addressed, there are no environmental issues that would rule out the indicative alignments identified at this stage of the process." The NRA has recommended that the project be progressed to the next stage of development, the preparation of the statutory documentation for the project, including the identification of a preferred route. The organisation said the motorway could not be built under Transport 21 or the National Development Plan 2007-2013 so the only remaining funding would be through the NRA's overall capital expenditure allocation which was fully committed at this time on the completion of the major inter-urban routes and other high priority programmes. Cllr Jimmy Cudden said the message had to go out from the Slane Electoral Area meeting that they were not accepting the corridor chosen by the NRA. The sooner the NRA and Meath County Council got that message, the better it would be. "It is going to obliterate a heritage area of Duleek, the Commons, and a housing area," he claimed. Cllr Ann Dillon Gallagher asked whether the land within the 2km corridor from which the eventual route would be chosen, was sterilised until that decision was made. Cllr Eoin Holmes said the motorway scheme seemed to be a "go" project, apart from the question of funding. He thought the introduction of a corridor was good planning. However, he was not convinced that the NRA had fully thought through its impact on Duleek. "I would like to hear more from the Meath County Council officials and the NRA to show us what they are talking about and how it will work. We should reiterate our request to have these people here," he said. Cllr Seamus O'Neill said the NRA could not have done a feasability study if they had included the Commons and a housing estate in the path of the corridor. The area manager pointed out that the NRA had said there was no funding available for the project at the moment. He said that if the project was going to An Bord Pleanala, there would have been some mention of it in the Meath County Development Plan. Mr McDonnell said that, at some stage, a line for the motorway would be chosen. Neither Meath County Council nor the NRA would decide on that. It would be decided by An Bord Pleanala. Cllr Cudden said: "I am sick and tired of this carry on from the NRA. We are the people who represent the people of east Meath." Mr McDonnell said the council's director of infrastructure liaised with the NRA. Cllr Cudden replied: "We are the ones who brought the resolution to the full council that we invite the NRA down here to meet with us." He objected to the fact that the NRA had decided to bypass the councillors and deal only with officials. Cllr Wayne Harding said they would have to be careful what they said about the motorway. They would have to be responsible. Nobody who was trying to sell a house in the village would want to hear that a motorway was going through their kitchen.