Council accused of 'stonewalling' on west Mayo greenway project
Members of the Belclare to Murrisk Committee have accused Mayo County Council of stonewalling in respect of the greenway project in their communities.
A statement issued by the group elaborated: "Since the council announced the options for the Belclare to Murrisk greenway in September 2023, we have been stuck in a limbo, officially known as the consultation phase.
"The consultation phase is the second of the four-phase process by which the troika, comprising Transport Infrastructure Ireland, Mayo County Council, and National Roads Office (TII, MCC, and NRO for short), deliver, or do not deliver, as is more often the case, greenways.
"As interminable, expensive, and inconclusive as the consultation may be, the most remarkable characteristic of the consultation process is none of these but how completely un-consultative it is. How is this manifest?
"The troika does not engage with the public. In the 25 months since the Belclare to Murrisk greenway was announced, hundreds of submissions, dozens of letters, articles, television and radio interviews, making the case for option 1 and outlining the egregious faults in option 2, have gone unheeded, unacknowledged and ignored.
"The upland route, option 2, which entails the construction of four kilometres of new public access through private land (fields, farms, floodplains, and forests) where no right of way has ever existed, has been promoted without any explanation as to why - save one.
"The only information our local representatives have extracted from the monthly municipal district meetings, is the now tired and familiar refrain that option 1 doesn’t comply with TII guidelines.
"Why then was it ever proposed?
"The public and our representatives have repeatedly pointed out that guidelines are not laws, we are not governed by them.
"This is something that the TII recognises in its very own publication, 'Rural Cycleway Design, 1.5, Departures from Standards', which reads: 'At some locations, it may not be possible to provide minimum design parameters owing to site constraints, economic constraints, or environmental constraints.
"In such cases, sufficient advantages might justify either a relaxation within the standards or, in more constrained locations, a departure from the standards.
"Relaxations and departures should be assessed in terms of their effects on the economic worth of the scheme, the environment, and the safety of the user'.
"The cost of forcibly purchasing four kilometres of land, from more than 50 unwilling property owners, to build a brand new road across a floodplain, along the Owenwee river, which routinely bursts it’s banks and rises 60 metres above sea level before returning to the main road at the bottom of Croagh Patrick, is unquestionably more expensive, and destructive, than running a cycle way along the main road, at a constant height, with fewer bends, and improving existing infrastructure.
"That there are more amenities in terms of pubs, restaurants, service stations, picnic areas, parking, and access via the contiguous road for drop offs, collections, and emergency services, are all further reasons for option 1 being of greater value to the community and for tourists.
"Economically there are no benefits in the upland route except to the people paid for planning and building it, as there’s not a single business to customer enterprise along the entire four-kilometre stretch."