Media:NRA accused of being 'industrial terrorists' trying to kill Meath

jd

http://www.meathchronicle.ie/articles/1/32733

The National Road Authority (NRA) has been accused of being “industrial terrorists” who are trying to kill the economic development of Meath.
At a meeting of Meath County Council on Monday last, councillors warned that if the authority’s powers were not curtailed, the county was doomed. Councillors were furious at recent objections by the authority to planning applications for commercial developments adjacent to new motorways.
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Cllr Jimmy Cudden said the NRA had refused to allow any signs on the motorway showing the exit to City North, but if you drive farther down the motorway to Dublin, there are signs for everything – even a Sunday market.
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Cllr Tom Kelly said that, under the 1985 Act, the NRA were not allowed to have developments at intersections and they should go to the Minister for Transport and ask him to change that. He proposed sending a delegation to the Minister.
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amacachi

Ah irony.

dowlingm

You mean the NRA actually learned from the Mahon Point fiasco?

lostexpectation

gombeens

Zoney

It would be more appropriate to call Meath Co. Co. saboteurs of planning.

The NRA are quite rightly doing their job (trying to keep new roads more viable than past ones have been), and indeed they are having to over-interfere simply because the local council are, as has previously been noted, gombeens.

There should not be one single more "Liffey Valley" situation for a start. National Primary Routes, motorway or indeed single carriageway, are to connect parts of the country, not to serve retail developments. They are all trunk routes (not like A roads in the UK, some of which are trunk, others not).

It would seem that many politicians are grossly ignorant concerning the basics of a road network (and a great many other things too). That is to some extent acceptable (they are elected simply as representatives and to govern). However, what isn't acceptable is the extreme arrogance of many politicians here, and their incapacity to seek out or listen to those who are knowledgable.

BrianD

I think that the irony is the use of the word "industrial". the current governmnet policies have ensured that there is next to no industry left in Meath> the industrial heritage that Navan had in furniture and carpet manufacturing is long gone.

Perhaps the correct term should have been "retail park" terrorists?

I'm surprised that the penny hasn't dropped yet with these councillors. You'd be surprised how much PP has been granted in Meath with "adequate transport" being the proximity to the M3.

BluntGuy

Too lazy to change it, so I'll just repeat what I said on SABRE:

BluntGuy wrote:

That complaint is rubbish...

Why build a nice, new stretch of road and reck it with inappropiate development... :mad:

Look at Mahon Point for an example of what that type of development does to a road. You can be ages sitting on those hideous slip roads, and it's nearly impossible to upgrade the junction because the shopping-centre is nearly right on top of the road.

I'm glad they won't be able to ruin the M3 with that kind of silly developement.

BluntGuy

BrianD wrote: »

I think that the irony is the use of the word "industrial". the current governmnet policies have ensured that there is next to no industry left in Meath> the industrial heritage that Navan had in furniture and carpet manufacturing is long gone.

Perhaps the correct term should have been "retail park" terrorists?

I'm surprised that the penny hasn't dropped yet with these councillors. You'd be surprised how much PP has been granted in Meath with "adequate transport" being the proximity to the M3.

I think people have a big problem with what motorways are meant for. They are not meant for local-shopping trips, they are meant for long-distance journeys from city to city or town to town. Not quick 3 minute hops to the local Tesco.

Motorways are not about going directly from your choice of A to your choice of B. They are about funnelling you efficiently and quickly from one part of the country to the next without having to clog up local roads. Once you are in the area of your destination, you leave the motorway and the local road network should be able to cater for you.

I didn't once say that I had problems with junctions being located near towns btw. Indeed, I advocate connecting as many towns as feasibly possible with good quality transport links whether road or rail. But it should be done with purpose of getting people long distances, not funnelling people directly into traffic jams when they should be flying at 120 km/h, as the road is intended for.

The M3 is a commuter motorway, the very existence of which is down to bad planning and poor public transport connections. The least they can do is not worsen the situation by allowing sprawl to develop at the interchanges.

But who am I kidding, that's probably what will utlimately happen and we'll have Mahon Point Mk 2...

mackerski

jd wrote: »

farther down the motorway to Dublin, there are signs for everything – even a Sunday market

Is that true? :eek: If it is, the sign is illegally placed.

Stark

I guess he means the N3 when he says "motorway". In one sense we can be thankful to the likes of Cudden and Kelly. They're the reason why the NRA is upgrading most of our HQDC with nice new blue signage and 120km/hr speed limits