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Following revelations last week that Loughrea’s proposed bypass could
be put on the back burner for the next ten years, the town’s Chamber
of Commerce are to seek an urgent round the table meeting with Transport
Minister Seamus Brennan and the National Roads Authority.
Both the Minister and the NRA gave verbal assurances earlier in the year
that the Eur20 million Loughrea by-pass could go ahead as a stand alone
project with an envisaged completion date in 2005.
According to a NRA memo to Minister Brennan, to allow the Loughrea by-pass
element of the scheme to run as a stand alone improvement for the town
they had encouraged Galway County Council to determine if the necessary
land for the project could be acquired by agreement rather than by the
more prolonged CPO process.
One landowner in particular had caused the NRA to review the situation
and the person in question had rejected the deal offered for their land
- this meant that securing progress on this deal outside of the CPO process
appeared impossible according to the Roads Authority.
But Maura Winters, President of the Loughrea Chamber of Commerce, has
rejected this scenario and said that even with a CPO - which would take
about 18 months - the entire by-pass project could be completed in approximately
another eighteen months.
“We feel that this matter can only be resolved by a round table meeting
involving Transport Minister Seamus Brennan, NRA Chief Executive Michael
Toibin and the Loughrea Chamber of Commerce.
“We are now doing everything we can to possibly secure such a meeting
as soon as possible with the help of our public representatives - there
is absolute unanimity over the need for the bypass to be treated as a
stand alone project,” said Ms Winters.
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