Residents may seek judicial review of motorway link

Residents in a Cork City suburb have said they may ultimately seek a judicial review over plans to develop a motorway from the outskirts of the city to Ringaskiddy amid claims they were not properly consulted.

The M28 Cork to Ringaskiddy Project would see the redevelopment and upgrading of the road on the existing route, with residents in the area claiming this will lead to significant noise and air pollution and safety concerns.

Cork Chamber of Commerce has supported the current plan, which is the subject of an environmental impact statement, to be completed shortly, and which will also be discussed at an oral hearing in the coming months.

The public display issued in recent days by Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), the funding authority for the plan, outlined how Cork County Council propose to upgrade about 12.5km of the N28 national primary route from the N28/N40 South Ring Road Bloomfield Interchange to Ringaskiddy along the preferred route.

TII said subject to approval of various orders, the EIS would be published and this would trigger the start of the statutory planning process.

However, the M28 steering group, which says it represents up to 10,000 residents in Maryborough Hill, Rochestown, Mount Oval, Carr’s Hill and Douglas, said the group had seen a draft version of the EIS, and claimed efforts by locals to discuss alternative routes had not been considered.

Group chairman Ger Harrington said: “None of the submissions were ever taken into consideration.”

One alternative route would be to redevelop the road going to Cork Airport, and he stressed that locals were not opposed to the overall motorway plan but simply wanted to divert a 2.5km stretch.

While stressing the residents would offer their views at the oral hearing, Mr Harrington said: “We may seek a judicial review on the basis that the process [of public consultation] was not carried out properly.”

Senator Jerry Buttimer said it was “disappointing” that it appeared there was little or no consideration of the views of residents.

Cork Chamber CEO Conor Healy backed the plan and said the M28 is a strategic asset for realising potential in Cork and a key enabler of national and regional growth identified in its recent submission to the National Planning Framework.