Town bypassed by boom fights for motorway link

A TOWN bypassed by the Celtic Tiger is preparing to fight for the right to be linked to the new M20 Cork-Limerick motorway.

There are slip roads connecting every town along the route except for Buttevant. Locals fear business and future development will be damaged if the NRA doesn’t change its mind. They are preparing a submission to a Bord Pleanála oral hearing on the project which will get under way at the Charleville Park Hotel on Wednesday, July 7.

Local solicitor Matt Nagle said, under the current NRA plan, access to Buttevant would be at slip roads either at Mallow or Charleville, which were both just over 11km from the town. He said that a link could easily be built to the motorway, especially at Velvetstown, which is about a kilometre north of the town. If it isn’t, he said the town’s prospects for residential, industrial and tourism development would be damaged.

“We are fully in favour of having the town bypassed but I haven’t encountered anybody who doesn’t think a link to the motorway would be of benefit. We feel it would be disastrous for the town if there wasn’t a link,” Mr Nagle said. He added locals were in the process of getting expert advice to prepare their submission.

Another local, John Lee, said the population of Buttevant was decreasing. Yet the county council highlighted in the county development plan the need to build more houses in the town.

Mr Lee, a lorry driver by occupation, said it was important a slip road was created. “The town missed out on the benefit of the Celtic Tiger and it will miss out again if we don’t get a local connection to the motorway,” he said. Auctioneer Tom Sheahan said the absence of a connecting road would make Buttevant and nearby Doneraile a less attractive place to live. “It would also have a negative impact on inward investment,” he said.

County councillors are expected to support locals’ demands at the oral hearing. At a council meeting in Mallow this week, Cllr Ronan Sheehan (Lab) said the local authority was promoting Buttevant for more housing and a new school.

“The people of Buttevant are very concerned that without the slip road it will kill their town. We should be supporting them at the oral hearing,” Mr Sheehan said. Assistant county manager Tim Lucey said the council had written to the NRA suggesting that a slip road be built to connect the town to the motorway. Cllrs Tim Collins (Ind) and Noel Buckley (FG) also supported Mr Sheehan’s proposal.

“The people of Buttevant are very annoyed about this and we should make a submission on their behalf,” Cllr Noel O’Connor said. It was agreed the council would make a case, at the oral hearing, for an access road.