Kerry road works refusal overturned

A failure by An Bord Pleanála to consider the needs of cyclists and pedestrians when it refused permission for a major road-widening scheme extending 28km between Tralee and Daingean in Co Kerry has led to a High Court order overturning that refusal.

The board, in its relatively new capacity as a roads authority, failed to consider the needs of cyclists and pedestrians when rejecting Kerry County Council’s scheme to widen and straighten a 28km stretch of the busy N86 and include cycleways on both sides, Mr Justice Peter Charleton said.

There was also “no evidence of regard” to the strategy of Government and official bodies for development of cycling and cycle tourism.

The complexity of the relevant legislation, the Road Acts 1993-2007 and Planning Act 2000, has made the board’s task regarding road planning authorisation and refusal “very difficult indeed”, the judge noted.

Both the board and council showed considerable care in discharging their tasks and it was “a pity” provisions of the 2000 Act allowing for formal structured consultations seemed only to apply to gas and electricity installations, not roads.

Judge Charleton was giving judgment upholding the council’s challenge to the planning board’s September 2013 rejection of permission for the N86 scheme.

The board accepted there was a need to upgrade the road but said the council’s plan involved excessive intervention into the landscape.