Council apologise for 'genuine' mistake of inviting deceased man to Kerry Greenway consultation meeting

Kerry County Council has apologised to a landowner on the proposed South Kerry Greenway for “a genuine” mistake writing to his dead father and then inviting the deceased man to a consultation meeting.

The council has also been accused of “pitting” landowners against each other and of not taking enough care with landowners' concerns.

The council sent a letter addressed to “John Lyne, (RIP)” Boulerdagh, Kells, on June 8 2016. But his son Morgan Lyne, one of a number of landowners strongly opposed to the compulsory purchase mechanism, told the hearing how he had actually approached the council before that date and asked it to note his father had passed away in 2014.

“I didn’t want letters arriving to the house in his name so I told one of the engineers involved in the project my mother was now the owner of the said plots,” he told An Bord Pleanála chairperson Karla McBride.

His mother then aged 80 received the correspondence addressed to her dead husband and this was was extremely upsetting for her. On June 20 a second letter arrived inviting his deceased father to “a consultation meeting” at the Ring of Kerry Hotel.

Three dead people - including an uncle who died in 2011, and a man who passed away in 1972 in the small townland near Kells - had received communication from the council about the CPO of their lands, Mr Lyne said.

In July 2015 - well over a year since the greenway was announced and months after the council voted to proceed to CPO after being told grant money was at risk if the greenway were not finished by December 2016 - the council was still trying to identify landowners, Mr Lyne also said.

Senior planner Tom Sheehy apologised to Mr Lyne and said the error was caused by a mail merge list. It was a genuine mistake.

Another landowner Ciaran Quinlan of Renard outside Cahersiveen also criticised the council’s handling of the landowners' issues.

He said everyone was for the greenway but the council had “not handled” the matter correctly.

“They pitted people against each other. The council should have treated us with a little more care,” Mr Quinlan said.

He lives by the sea in Renard and coastal erosion was considerable. He has asked the council to move the route up from the sea “a couple of metres” and also for an underpass to enable him to come and go to his house.

“It has been quite difficult dealing with the council at the start but in the last few months it has improved,” Mr Quinlan said.

Of the three routes available they picked the one “right in front of my door,” he said.

Senior planner Tom Sheehy said the council had analysed the different alternatives carefully and it was not as if they just decided “let’s put it there".

The council said it moved to the CPO after months of negotiation with landowners failing. Some who were for it at the beginning changed their minds. The council also said the project is needed for the regeneration of west Iveragh, and “the common good".

The hearing in Tralee continues.