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[Article] Cancelled: N72 Mallow link road due to land cost

  • 06-03-2008 9:45am
    #1
    munchkin_utd
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,921 ✭✭✭


    €50m cost of land halted road project

    By Allison Bray
    Thursday March 06 2008

    A PRICE TAG of €10m per kilometre in land costs alone proved too dear for the National Roads Authority, which was forced to cancel a road building project earlier this year due to the exorbitant cost of farmland.

    For the first time ever, the NRA allowed a compulsory purchase order to acquire land for the road to lapse in January because it simply couldn't afford to buy the land needed for the project, Michael Egan, the NRA's head of corporate affairs, told a Dail committee yesterday.

    It would have cost the State more than €50m solely in land acquisition costs to build the five kilometre relief road off the N72 in Mallow, Co Cork, he told the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Fisheries and Food yesterday.

    The land in question was originally valued at €14.6m in 2005 but after Cork County Council re-zoned the land, it shot up in price to more than €50m by the end of 2007 after An Bord Pleanala had given the green light for a compulsory purchase order to go ahead, he said.

    "It's difficult enough to get a compulsory purchase order but this is the first time we've had to rescind it," he told the Irish Independent.

    "Given the escalation of costs, it didn't represent value for money. We weren't in a position to buy it," he said.

    "We were faced with paying development cost prices."

    And it wasn't the first time that the value of land has gone up considerably following a council planning decision, he added.

    "Council decisions have been a factor. We're now appealing to them not to re-zone land," he said of land that the NRA is looking to expropriate for road building.

    In fact, the cost of farmland has become one of the most expensive aspects of road-building and now accounts for close to a quarter of all associated costs, he told the committee.

    More than €383m -- or 23pc of the NRA's €1.7bn budget last year -- was spent on land acquisition compared to about 10pc of its annual budget in 2003, he said.

    Farmers are also entitled to a minimum compensation payment of €5,000 per acre.

    - Allison Bray

    http://www.independent.ie/national-news/836450m-cost-of-land-halted-road-project-1307962.html

    Christ, this is pure comedy. Probably not so funny for anyone living in Mallow.

    And probably a balls for the lad who bought the land thinking he was in for a windfall for the sale of a portion of the land for the N72 along with the value of his land being boosted further by the state providing the access infrastructure for it!
    Tagged:


Comments

  • #2
    transylman
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 602 ✭✭✭transylman


    A cynical observer might suspect that the local councillors were convinced to rezone the land by the payoff they would get from the farmer when the land was bought by the NRA. I'm glad I'm not that cynical, it would be very depressing.


  • #3
    munchkin_utd
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,921 ✭✭✭munchkin_utd


    Cynicism aside, it's sad to see a part of this infamous Transport 21 plan abandoned because of an idiot local council decision.

    Ironically, the provision of the N72 inner relief road is there plain as day in the Cork County Plan released by Cork county council themselves, but through their actions Cork CC have single handedly actively scuppered this project in the plan.

    Heres the county plan by the way:
    Therefore, the following recommendations are made:
    In order to improve arterial roads network:
    ........
    Provide a quality standard, consistent improved two-lane carriageway between Tallow (WestWaterford), via
    Mallow (incorporating a Northern Relief Road)
    and Fermoy to Rathmore (County Kerry); N72.
    Page 16 of http://www.corkcoco.ie/co/pdf/578666400.pdf


  • #4
    Irish and Proud
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,735 ✭✭✭Irish and Proud


    munchkin_utd wrote: »
    http://www.independent.ie/national-news/836450m-cost-of-land-halted-road-project-1307962.html

    Christ, this is pure comedy. Probably not so funny for anyone living in Mallow.

    And probably a balls for the lad who bought the land thinking he was in for a windfall for the sale of a portion of the land for the N72 along with the value of his land being boosted further by the state providing the access infrastructure for it!

    Proper Order NRA!!! :)

    I'd do exactly the same thing - it will hopefully teach the local authority a valuable lesson. Why should the taxpayer have to fork out €50m for farmland to build a local by-pass in Co Cork (the N72 is really only a national road by name - I mean, where does it go??? :rolleyes:).

    IMO, €50m would be far better spent on essential resurfacing projects around the country.

    Regards!


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