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Moville opposes Compulsory
Purchase plans
20.11.07
by Simon McGeady, Inishowen Independent
PLANS by Donegal County Council to order landowners
in Moville to sell land for a road-widening project,
are to face strenuous opposition with several
landowners faced with the Compulsory Purchase Order
(CPO) insisting they will not comply.
Several local business people and other landowners
in Moville reacted with anger and disbelief to the
news Donegal County Council intend to make a
compulsory purchase of sections of their land along
the Derry Road to widen and realign the Derry Road.
The order affects lands from a point 180 metres
south west of the Moville Community College entrance
to the bridge on the southern end of Moville Town. |
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Businesses affected by
the CPO include Thompson’s coal-yard, Seamus Kelly’s
clothes shop, Canny and Doherty’s Centra
supermarket, the Top Filling Station and Joseph
Doherty Motors. The Bay Field, the former home of
Moville Celtic Football Club, is also subject to the
CPO.
The owners identified in an advertisement published
by the |
council last week were
notified of the Council’s intention by letter a day
before the notice appeared in the press.
However several of the business people named in the
CPO, told the Inishowen Independent that they intend
to oppose the order, if possible.
Seamus Kelly of Kelly’s, a family-owned shoe and
clothes shop located on the Derry Road, said he was
surprised to learn that part of the land surrounding
the family shop was to be taken by Donegal County
Council.
“At this stage I am shell-shocked. There has been no
consultation, and the council have made me no offer
for the land,” said Mr Kelly, adding he’d heard
nothing from the Donegal County Council since they
approached him at the end of August 2006. |
Mr Kelly expressed
anger that part of the land to be taken by the
council was designated ‘agricultural’ and, as he saw
it, was devalued.
“Sections of the land have been downgraded from
commercial to agricultural. We want market value for
this land.”
Regarding the practice of Compulsory Purchase, Mr
Kelly had this to say, |
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“It’s like somebody
coming to you and saying they want to buy your
house, then coming back saying ‘right, we’re taking
it.’”
Gerard Doherty, of Donagh Traders Ltd, owners of the
adjacent Canny and Doherty’s Centra supermarket and
Top filling station, was equally surprised at last
week’s development.
The Carndonagh-based businessman thinks it’s right
that the Derry Road should be improved for
pedestrians and motorists, but he maintains the
council should have negotiated a fair price for the
required lands instead of going down the CPO route.
“We’ve been in negotiations with Donegal County
Council about developing this site since we came
here four years ago. The language I use is there
will be pain here but that pain has to be shared,”
said Mr Doherty in reference to the level of
compensation his business should receive for loss of
parking spaces and disruption to customers.
Car dealer Michael Doherty of Joseph Doherty
Limited, said he stood to lose around twelve feet
from his car lot on the Derry Road.
“The crux of the problem is that someone in the
council decided to go ahead with building the new
Community College before they had the infrastructure
in place.”
A footpath constructed to serve Moville Community
College resulted in the narrowing of the Derry Road.
Speaking on behalf of the owners of the Bay Field,
Mr Harry Gillen told the Inishowen Independent that
he would be opposing the CPO as he wanted a fair
price for the land.
“What I would be getting would only be a fifth of
what the land is worth and I am not willing to sell
at that price.”
Moville-based councillor Marian McDonald has made
council official Pat Gillespie aware of the
displeasure of local landowners, however she does
not anticipate that the council will enter into new
negotiations with the above stakeholders.
The Inishowen Independent had intended to reproduce
Donegal County Council’s map of the area outlined in
the CPO, however the local authority declined our
request for a copy of the map which is available for
inspection in the council offices in Carndonagh. |
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