500 face CPO fears as motorway plans loom
Their farms range from Killeens Cross, near Blarney, Co City and Adare, Co Limerick. They lie along six possible routes of a motorway to replace the existing N20.
Farmers crowded into public information sessions at four venues last week to get the first glimpse of the proposed routes. For hundreds of them, their worst fears were confirmed as they scrutinised maps which identified that their holdings were on one of the six possible routes.
But farmers are expected to have to wait at least three months before knowing if their property could be split by the new road, when the preferred route is announced by the planners.
The fate of landowners along one section of the route has already been confirmed. There is only one route identified for the stretch from Killeens Cross to near Ballyvalode, from where three possible routes continue onwards.
The route will be one of the longest undertaken under the new roads development programme, extending for up to 90 kilometres, affecting a large number of the most fertile and most intensively operated farms in the country, many of them in milk production.
The holdings of many well known dairy farmers have been identified along the six routes announced.
Submissions are now being taken from farmers and interested parties in relation to the optional routes and it is expected that the preferred route will be announced in October or November.
