Plan for new road and bridge across the Boyne at Drogheda shot down

A PROPOSAL for a new road skirting Drogheda between the M1 motorway and the R132 with a new bridge across the Boyne east of that town failed to get traction among councillors when the subject came up during deliberations on the draft development plan for Co Meath covering the next six years.

Discussions on the development plan, in abeyance over the Christmas period, resumed in an online mode on Monday this week. Councillors are linked through the internet to enable discussions on the plan. Fine Gael Cllr Paddy Meade tabled the proposal for a new road and bridge.

The Southern environs of Drogheda in Co Meath came up for discussion this week. The local authorities in Meath and Louth have been in contact over the future planning of that area. Fine Gael Cllr Paddy Meade said that his county should have a clearly defined “Meath position” on lands South of Drogheda when the council was going into discussions with Louth.

FG Cllr Sharon Tolan said there were potentially big decisions relating to that area that councillors were being asked to make. She thought that discussions about the area were being adjourned until such time as joint urban plans being the two counties were being made. A joint study examining transport issues in that area has started up.

Officials said that it was important that councillors’ views on the future of this area should be put forward.

Council official Des Foley said that there was a lot of work going on in the background between the two local authorities. Councillors were told that a new Meath County Development Plan would be developed before any Joint Urban Area Plan for the Southern environs of Drogheda.

Cllr Tolan said that the biggest complaint she heard from people living in that area South of Drogheda was that important decisions for their area were made in Dundalk. She said she was glad to hear that progress on the future planning of the area was being made in background discussions.