Former election candidate supports delaying motorway

FORMER Progressive Democrats general election candidate, Mary Mannion, is supporting calls for the Government to postpone plans for the controversial €120 million motorway going through large tracts of South-East Clare.

FORMER Progressive Democrats general election candidate, Mary Mannion, is supporting calls for the Government to postpone plans for the controversial €120 million motorway going through large tracts of South-East Clare.
Clare County Council recently decided to extend the public consultation period concerning the Emerging Preferred Route Corridor for the Northern Distributor Road by two months. This was done in the wake of stinging criticism from some public representatives, who claimed there was a lack of adequate discussions with a local lobby group of concerned residents.
Mary Mannion, who lives in Parteen, has also questioned the need for the new motorway, describing it as unnecessary.
The retired councillor has also asked that Clare County Council complete a traffic survey from Parteen to Corbally to establish the real traffic volumes in the locality and not estimates for what was happening 14 years ago.
“The road is based on a study done 15 years ago when things were totally different. There is flash traffic with schools during the morning and at around 3pm. That is the extent of it in Corbally. This new road will not solve this problem at all. It is a useless exercise.
“If I remember correctly, UL got their planning going back a number of years. When the new bridge was built, planning conditions stipulated there would be no vehicular traffic from Clare and the Garraun Road would be closed as a result of that.
“This is a flooded area. I don’t think we have learned anything from past flooding of the Longpavement or in Springfield, where it resulted in huge expense. Now we are going to do the same again when there is absolutely no need for it,” she claimed.
“There is a dual carriageway already being under-used and we are subsidising it. If this road is built, why would people use a tunnel they have to pay money to use. It is a complete ill thought-out project,” she said.
Requesting that the council to stall this project, Ms Mannion warned some of the best farmers in the county will be destroyed.
“Are farmers going to be forced to sit for ten years on their land without carrying out any development, wondering are they going to be broken up or left as is.
“It is a terrible project in this day and age. There are very few houses where there are two cars going out to work. It happened ten years ago but it is not happening now. Nobody has looked at that, it is a paper project,” she claimed.
Parteen businessman Con O’Donoghue claimed the money is not there for the road.
“When Burlington was in top gear, there was 1,800 people working there in three shifts and it was more than adequate. That was 20 years ago. The money is not there. It could go into €200 million when it starts. It will split the whole community. No one wants it. If the council want it, do they have the money for it?” he asked.