Roads needed to bypass bypasses, says planning boss

BAD planning by local authorities means towns will soon need new roads to bypass their bypasses, one of the country’s leading planning officials has warned.

Chairman of An Bord Pleanála, John O’Connor, said billions of euro worth of new roads, built in recent years, were being ruined because retail parks, industrial estates, housing developments and hotels were let spring up all along them.

Major developments were particularly evident at important junctions on bypasses, and developers were deliberating targeting parcels of land near roundabout, citing this as a selling feature of their site.