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.