European Court ruling to stymie €100m road?

THE location of at least two protected large habitats along the proposed €100 million distributor road in South-East Clare should result in a revaluation of the entire project following a recent European Court of Justice ruling.

That’s the assertion made by the Northern Distributor Concerned Residents’ Group (NDCRG), who insist there are distinct similarities between the habitats near the new road and the Galway bypass, which has been halted following a European Court of Justice ruling.

The European Court of Justice has delivered a landmark judgement in the long running Galway Bypass case brought by environmentalist, Peter Sweetman.

Plans for the bypass will have to be totally redrawn if it is to go ahead. The European Court of Justice ruled that the proposed 12 kilometre bypass around Galway City cannot go ahead because it will have a severe impact on a protected natural habitat.

This ruling has prompted the NDCRG to request Clare County Council to reconsider the proposed Limerick Northern Distributor Road project in view of its alleged impact on Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) near Burlington, Clonlara and in Parteen.

Clare County Council pointed out the preferred route has been accepted and noted the next step from a public involvement point of view is the procedure to vary the Clare and Limerick County Development Plans.

“Members of the public and councillors will have an opportunity to air their views during that process which will probably get underway shortly,” said a council spokesman.

Project consultants have started work on the design of the road and the preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), which has to be submitted to An Bord Pleanála for adjudication. This will effectively be the formal planning process for the scheme and will facilitate public consultation as in relation to any planning application.

The announcement of the preferred route corridor last September followed detailed consideration of over 400 ­submissions received by the council, the lead authority for the project, through a public consultation period which was extended by almost three months during 2012.

In a statement issued to The Clare Champion, group chairman, Seán McGovern said the recent European Court of Justice ruling had set a precedent for the protection of the environment and in particular certain habitats, which were protected under EU directives.

Asked if environmental concerns about the road’s impact on SAC could be addressed in an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), Mr McGovern claimed that the only way of fully resolving this issue and avoiding a challenge at EU or local level was to change the Preferred Route. He urged the county council to have a have a complete revaluation of this project.

“With this court case and decision in mind, it is now quite plain that the proposed Limerick Northern Distributor Road looks less and less likely to be built. It is running into increasing local opposition on legal, economic, environmental and ethical grounds. Clare County Council’s continuing adherence to its bureaucratic mandate appears to be at odds with the reality on the ground.

“The construction of this road has no actual purpose other than trashing a rural neighbourhood of the city, and creating a northern arm of the ring road, which will thereby create another urban wilderness to rival Ballysimon, and shift the city boundary northwards.

“While the process continues into its uncertain future, people’s lives and ­livelihoods are on probation, and a whole community’s future is in jeopardy,” he said.

He warned the ECJ ruling opened the way for legal obstruction of “Irish dismemberment of our landscape”.

He also noted 95% of submissions were against the planned road construction, the Shannon Tunnel was already underused and the fact that Transport Minister Leo Varadkar announced there would be no funding for this project in the lifetime of the current Government suggested this road was a “doomed project”.

Meanwhile, Councillor Pascal Fitzgerald has expressed concern that a team of people were in the Parteen area over several days last week and this illustrated that the local authorities are still determined to push ahead with the project, despite great public opposition from families living in the affected areas.

“I’ts not a pleasant prospect for the residents to have their residential way of life shattered not to mention these who will lose their family homes and farms that will be spoiled.

“There is definite apprehension among people about which lies in store for them when this roadway is imposed on them.

“The democratic wishes of the people are being ignored in this instance and I would appeal to the Minister and relevant authorities to do a rethink on what could in the end be a very costly white elephant,” he concluded.