Town’s desperate appeal for direct motorway link falls on deaf ears
Buttevant Community Council made a desperate plea at an oral hearing last week for a direct connection to the proposed M20 between Cork and Limerick claiming, without it, the town would suffer severely.
However, the pleas continue to fall on deaf ears with the community failing to persuade planners in both Cork and Limerick County Councils to change their minds. Both local authorities are working in conjunction with the National Roads Authority in the planning of the route.
Planners insist the opening of the 80 kilometre motorway will reduce traffic using the existing main road by up to 70%. They say that will make journey times to motorway junctions at Mallow and Charleville much faster, meaning there was no need for a junction at Buttevant. Community Council members argued it was the only town which would not have a connection to the €800 million road.
They also pointed out locals would be inconvenienced by having to travel about 12km to motorway junctions at Mallow and Charleville.
But the local authorities claim there was nothing unusual in having such distances between motorway junctions. Several examples include the 26km junction spacing on the M6 between junctions 15 and 16.
It was further pointed out that Mountrath, in Co Laois, which has a population 50% larger than Buttevant, has no motorway junction and its residents have to travel to junctions 9.9km and 16.1km away.
Local authority engineers have also disputed claims by the community council that building a junction would be cost effective in terms of saving lives in accidents along dangerous parts of the road leading from the town to Mallow and Charleville.
They maintain that it would cost €4 million to provide a junction 2km north of Buttevant and it would take about 50 years to get a return on that based on accident cost savings alone.
Buttevant has suffered a drop in population in recent years, unlike most other towns in Co Cork.
The Celtic Tiger bypassed the town and locals were hoping to play catch-up in the years ahead after Cork County Council rezoned some land for housing and industrial purposes.
However, they say that, without a motorway link, it will be virtually impossible to attract in new blood and new industries.
It appears they can only cross their fingers now and hope Bord Pleanála inspector Danny O’Connor sees their point of view and makes recommendations in their favour when he finalises his report.
