Story, Inishowen Independent
A GROUP of landowners
and farmers who say they provided Donegal County
Council with an alternative route for the proposed
outer-relief road for Buncrana claim they are amazed
that councillors who voted for an alternative route
proposed by council engineers seem to have changed
their minds within a week. |
According to the
secretary for the Alternative Outer Relief Road,
Michael Burns, landowners in the Buncrana environs
had provided the council with an alternative route
in an effort to minimise the loss to their
livelihoods, the destruction of their farms and to
protect sites for their families for the future.
“Our proposal also had the |
 |
benefit of expediting
the building of the road as the land was committed
from the outset. However the route now selected by
the council will take decades to build as it relies
on developers to buy the land and build the route on
approximately six kilometres of undeveloped land.”
Mr. Burns said the council must also now embark on a
lengthy process of Compulsory Purchase Orders for
those unwilling to sell land along the proposed
route.
The secretary of the newly formed group said Donegal
County Council had put the two routes – the one
proposed by them and the one proposed by council
engineers to both the Inishowen Electoral Area
representatives and Buncrana Town Council. And they
say that the Inishowen Electoral Area
representatives voted for the engineers’ route
unanimously while the Town Council voted for it by a
majority decision.
“Before the vote we attended a workshop with the
county engineers and councillors from both the Town
and Inishowen areas. We presented our case including
expert opinion from an eminent engineer who said our
alternative route was the only buildable one. Other
than that he said the two routes were similar with
regard to the required standards.”
However Mr. Burns said that the council engineers
insisted the route they proposed was the best one
and could not be altered in any way.
“They said their route was planned to the highest
standards and any alterations would entail a
lowering of standards under the criteria. We
presumed that the councillors were suitably
impressed engineers’ principled stance but
incredibly it would seem that the same councillors
who voted for the engineers’ route have changed
their minds with a week.”
The Alternative Route secretary insisted that a
recent story in the Inishowen Independent indicated
that councillors now had concerns about the route of
the outer-relief road.
“The question now has to be asked – why did they
vote for a route that they knew would pose serious
questions when they had an alternative?”
And he added: Now they are worried about some
peoples’ livelihoods and restrictions regarding
planning opportunities. What about all of our
livelihoods and the restrictions being forced on us?
Why the discrimination? Is one person’s livelihood
more important than another?”
The secretary also wondered if councillors should
have the right to differentiate between those they
deemed deserving of planning permission on their
land and others.
“When the councillors were elected to represent the
people of Buncrana and Inishowen they were given a
mandate to serve on behalf of us all. Serious
questions now have to answered by these councillors.
For instance why did one councillor vote for the
route and then turn around and declare afterwards
that ‘it did not make sense.’ We also need to know
why the engineer said the road could not be altered
before the vote, but after the vote say that it
could?”
Mr. Burns who suggested that standards seemed to be
altered on a weekly basis maintained there was a
serious issue of credibility and competence at
stake.
He concluded: “The people of Buncrana want and
deserve decent infrastructure but it is highly
unlikely that they will get it in the current
climate. The council has already set a precedent in
this regard – it’s called the inner relief road!” |
