NRA threat to halt road programme lashed as 'blackmail'

ishmael whale

This looks like one to watch – an apparent attempt by NRA to implement joined-up government

http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1349815&issue_id=12151

NRA threat to halt road programme lashed as 'blackmail'

The National Roads Authority is threatening to pull the plug on a planned multi-million euro roads programme for Co Clare on the basis of safety considerations, in response to councillors ignoring Government restrictions on building one-off houses on national routes.
In an unprecedented move, the NRA warned Clare Co Council it will be forced to reassess plans for national road schemes and investment in Clare roads if councillors press ahead with easing restrictions on home-building on primary and regional routes….

dmeehan

damn right too
hopefully they (the NRA) will take the same attitude to one-off housing on N routes everywhere in the country

locals can still build their house in the same place, just have the entrance somewhere else

thejollyrodger

why cant people build their houses near towns or in villages. Why do they HAVE to build them on a national route. Paddy planning.

LFCFan

because a lot of people are building houses on their own land so don't have a choice. I agree with Dmeehan though. Entrances should not be onto main roads.

dowlingm

This was going on in Kerry too along N22. I rarely say this but well done NRA!

Crossley

It's not often I find myself agreeing with the NRA on anything but I have to take my hat off to them on this.

murphaph

Ditto to the above 2 comments. Bloody councillors. Vote hungry vulchers like all politicians. :mad:

sliabh

Has any of the pols used the phrase "unelected faceless bureaucrats" yet? It's one of those like "silent majority" or "plain people of Ireland" that tells you more about the person having a whinge than the thing they are complaining about.

Typically used by someone that want's to throw dirt at a person that has made a decision based on an agreed policy that was developed by people who (shock horror) actually are trained and experienced in the area where they are working.

Crossley

What's this strange Irish obsession with siting one's house as close as possible to a busy, noisy, dangerous road about anyway? In any other country people go to great lengths to get as far away from these death traps as possible but here the closer your doorstep is to the hard shoulder the better.

thejollyrodger

what bugs me is that the person who is building the house on the national route says something like "I have to build here cos there is no where else to build".

For the greater good of the Nation somewhere else has to be found. Rezoning appropriate land around towns and villages is what councillors should be doing, not backing up ONE PERSON and their white elephant housing.

Say the councillor gets his way and backs this one of housing, 10 years down the road when the country has to develop the road and probably knock down the house or provide interchange etc, its US who will be paying. this makes NO SENSE ! STOP THE MADNESS

vinnyfitz

The joke about this is that the NRA ought to have been doing this for years. They have exactly the same status in planning legislationas An Taisce but never objected to a single house being built on the N22 (for example).

They are finally taking stand years and many millions of €s to late.

jbkenn

What about a farming couple, whose house has been acquired under a compulsory purchase order to facilitate a new road, they have no problem with this, as the new road will benefit them as well as everybody else, being refused planning permission to build a house on their own land in the area, nearest village is 4 miles away

jbkenn

D'Peoples Voice

jbkenn wrote:

What about a farming couple, whose house has been acquired under a compulsory purchase order to facilitate a new road, they have no problem with this, as the new road will benefit them as well as everybody else, being refused planning permission to build a house on their own land in the area, nearest village is 4 miles away

jbkenn

Lets get one thing clear, the NRA are not doing this because of some power trip, they are doing it because many accidents are caused by people turning onto of off major roads!
The NRA are trying to save lives!
As regards farmers who live either side of the road, I know where you are coming from, but this is why when any new road being built, there is a requirement for designers to amend local feeder roads. Just look at any new plans for a road.
Now if these feeder roads can be designed in such a way that as many farmers can access the feeder road from their driveways, this feeder road can then join the national road as a grade separated junction. The cost of the grade separated junction is offset by the fact that there are all the farmers in the local area using that feeder road, and hence there is and will continue to be a great demand for it.
The problem arises if farmers refuse to sell part of their farm to make way for an adequate feeder road! But its one thing we have the current situation, its another to make matters worse.

ishmael whale

NRA seem to be persisting and its good to see an issue that need to be addressed are struggling to get on the agenda.

http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1384845&issue_id=12388
Road chiefs to test council policy on one-off housing
CLARE Co Council's controversial new policy of allowing one-off housing being built on national routes in certain circumstances is to be tested by An Bord Pleanala. This follows the National Roads Authority lodging its first ever appeal against a one-off home in Co Clare yesterday.

The move by the NRA yesterday came under fire from councillors who accused the authority of "administrative arrogance" and "trying to settle old scores" with the council. Last month, members of Clare Co Council ignored a warning from the NRA over loosening restrictions on one-off homes being built on national routes in the new Clare County Development Plan.

The NRA warned such a move would jeopardise the roads programme in Co Clare. Now, in a test-case of the council's new policy, which is also contained in the Ennis and Environs Development Plan, the NRA has appealed a decision by Clare Co Council to grant planning to Paul Brodie to build a house on land facing on to the main Ennis-Galway route 3km north of the village of Barefield.

Fine Gael councillor, Sonny Scanlan said: "I believe this appeal is connected to the councillors ignoring the views of the NRA in drawing up the new County Development Plan. The NRA is trying to settle old scores with the council in lodging the appeal."

jlang

It would set an atrocious precedent if the council were to win this one. Between that and the new guidelines, it would really be a free for all.

murphaph

I don't think there's anything more repulsivly vomit inducing than a politician trying to be the 'great man' who got johnnie so and so whatever he wanted even though them bad boys 'up in Dublin' didn't want him to have it. Small minded vote grabbing twats the lot of em. Have this 'country' the way it is.

MT

The attitude by Clare councillors over this issue has taken myopic parish pump politics to a new low. Simply for the sake of granting any Tom, Dick or Harry planning permission they're prepared to jeopardize the entire nation's investment in better infrastructure. A worse example of small minded parochial pettiness I don't think you'll find. Disgraceful. As someone said previously, if the council gets its way here a disastrous precedent will have been set.

D'Peoples Voice wrote:

Lets get one thing clear, the NRA are not doing this because of some power trip, they are doing it because many accidents are caused by people turning onto of off major roads!

Exactly. It makes perfect sense in terms of transport planning.

From a safety aspect, what unearth is the point of putting in place grade separated junctions if these idiots are then going to allow all and sundry to build their front drives out to major roads, completely negating the benefits of restricted access.

Another thing this latest debacle highlights is the continuing folly of only giving control of N routes to the DoT and the NRA. For as long as the ridiculous situation where most of the road transport network remains beyond the remit of the DoT/NRA, no one will vetoe similar ribbon development along important R routes.

I was recently driving towards Lough Allen on the widened and improved R280 and the road was literally lined with one-off ribbon development. Worse still many more houses were under construction. It was like passing through a 20 mile long village. How is such development compatible with road safety?!!

BrianD

How compatable is it with any form of sustainable existence. Worst of all is that the rest of us are subsidising their habitat!!