Council refutes claim submissions were ‘ignored’

Clare County Council has refuted claims that over 400 submissions concerning the proposed €100 million distributor road were “blatantly ignored”.

A Preferred Route Corridor has been accepted by the Project Steering Committee to facilitate development of Phase Two of the Limerick Northern Distributor Road.

The route is the same as the one that was put on display for public consultation purposes last January, despite over 400 submissions expressing concerns and requesting postponement and/or significant changes to the plan.

Senior engineer Tom Tiernan refuted suggestions that submissions received by the council were “blatantly ignored”.

“Every point in them was considered in detail, along with all of the information which had been gathered prior to the most recent public consultation period. 

“When everything was taken into account, the Route Corridor as originally proposed in January 2012 was found to be most appropriate,” he said.

Mr Tiernan and council consultants Roughan O’Donovan Consulting Engineers insist the proposed scheme will provide a range of benefits for the region.

“It will be a key foundation stone to facilitate balanced development across South East Clare, the north side of Limerick City and the Mid-West Region as a whole. It will incorporate high quality facilities for a variety of users including motorists, public transport, cyclists and pedestrians,” he stated.

Northern Distributor Road Concerned Residents Association chairman, Sean McGovern, said the group is disappointed that 400  submissions have been “blatantly ignored” and claimed the “secrecy” of not releasing the submissions of corporate bodies is “suspicious”.

He claimed the road would be an “unnecessary white elephant” because there is no need for it, considering traffic volumes going from South-East Clare to Limerick City has substantially dropped due to the recession.

“Why are we planning for a road that may be built in ten or 15 years’ time? There will be significant changes to the demographic, topography, geography and cost of the project, which will render the current plans outdated.

“We should wait and see if this road is needed in ten or 15 years and then commence the planning.”
In response to the council’s assertion that submission documents cannot be realised due to sensitive information, Mr McGovern said, “I wouldn’t expect any multinational or large company to provide sensitive commercial information in a submission to a county council about a new public road. This doesn’t make sense.”

He continued, “Residents are playing against a stacked deck with the steering committee, considering it is made up of council engineers from Clare and Limerick County Councils and the appointed consultants who are in favour of this route.

“The group would like to know when the submissions of the public bodies will be made public to mount a defence at Bord Pleanála level,” he said.

Mr Tiernan explained the council is planning for a road that won’t materialise for some years, because it takes several years to complete the planning and design process for a major project such as this.

If this project were to proceed without any delay and with an incessant flow of funding available to it, Mr Tiernan confirmed it wouldn’t be open to facilitate traffic until 2018 at least. 

If the council don’t plan ahead for strategically important projects now, he said, it will be way down the queue and unable to benefit from funding when it does become available.

“If we wait for some years before we even start planning for the route, it will be even more difficult to identify a Route Corridor than it is today because of changes that will have evolved on the landscape.  Therefore, it is very important that the Route Corridor is identified now and preserved to facilitate the future development of the route. 

“It will be too late to decide in 10 to 15 years from now that a road as strategically significant as this is needed right away.

“Submissions were invited without any suggestion that they could be published. There is sensitive information in some of them and we have to respect that people made the submissions for the purpose of providing the council with important information and without fear that it would be abused in any way. 

“If Mr McGovern wishes to request a copy of submissions from the multi-national or large companies to which he refers, I have no objection to this,” he explained.

“The steering committee had the responsibility to steer and manage the development of the project in a professional way. Among those responsibilities are identification of the Route Corridor for the project. 

“Ultimately, a planning application pertaining to the project will be placed before an independent body (An Bord Pleanála) for adjudication and the general public will be entitled to participate in that process in a meaningful manner, as is the case in relation to all planning applications.

“I don’t expect that the submissions could become less sensitive with time but as indicated under the previous point, members of the general public will have an opportunity in due course to raise whatever issues they wish in a process to be conducted by An Bord Pleanála,” he said.

The residents’ group is planning to co-operate with another opposition group in Lisnagry and are determined to continue protesting for the “long haul”.

It is considering expressing its concern about the non-release of submissions to Transport Minister Leo Varadkar and will be lobbying Clare Fine Gael councillors to raise the group’s concerns with Environment Minister Phil Hogan this Saturday.