Huge volume of submissions to delay road plans

CLOSE to 300 submissions have been made to An Bord Pleanála on the new Waterford to Kilcullen dual carriageway - more than twice the anticipated tally.

The sheer volume of submissions on the compulsory purchase of lands for the 64km route and an Environmental Impact Study on the road plan will delay the planning process by at least a month, a senior official with the Bord said.

“We have received a huge volume of submissions and will be processing them over the coming days. Over 100 submissions have come in on both the CPO and the EIS. There have been slightly more submissions on the CPO side.

“We will be putting these submissions together and will send a copy to the local authority. A file will also go to an inspector who will be arranging an oral hearing, probably in about two months’ time. The inspector will then make a final decision on the route.

“We had anticipated having a result by the end of August. But this will now go into September at least, such is the volume of submissions. We’ve yet to do a count on the files, but there are around 300 in all,” the official said.

Up to last week, just 21 objections had been received. It is expected that among those to make submissions are some of the three families who are to lose their homes to make way for the road and several of the 267 farmers who have been ordered to surrender part of their lands.

While only those who have to give up land for the 64km project could object to the CPO process, anyone with a concern over the EIS was in a position to raise an objection to that report before yesterday’s deadline.

Project leader Joe Gannon said the timeframe for the route was such that the volume of submissions should not cause any undue delay.

“We will be getting these submissions from An Bord Pleanála over the coming days. We will then endeavour to meet with as many of the people as possible before the oral hearing,” he said.

Groups including Waterford Chamber of Commerce have been lobbying for the new, upgraded route to Dublin for decades. They are anxious that any objections do not delay progress.

An Economic Evaluation Report on the N9, carried out by Waterford Chamber of Commerce, indicates that the congestion cost of the current N9 is €41.5 million nationally, and €28.9m of that is impacting on the south-east region.