An Bord Pleanala to assess plan

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" background="04b785a3.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>Councillor Keith Martin </B></FONT><B>     |    </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Councillor Keith Martin "><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="news21.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="News"><U><I><B><U>Back to news page</U></B></I></U></A></div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <IMG SRC="1cb4c5e0.jpg" border=0 width="76" height="94" ALT="Cllr Keith Martin of Westport Town Council, Westport, Mayo. www.votekeithmartin.com visit politicalquote.blogspot.com" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>An Bord Pleanala to assess plan</I></div> <bR> <div> Cllr Keith Martin of the “Stop this road” committee says that the controversial plan to run an access road over and adjacent to the Railway Line Walk is being investigated by An Bord Pleanala to ascertain whether or not an Environmental Impact Assessment is required for the project. The Labour councillor also stated that a legal action may be taken to prevent further work on the road and bridge.</div> <bR> <div> Cllr Martin says that An Bord Pleanala was contacted following the decision of Westport Town Council to proceed with the plans at the June meeting of the council. “After being contacted and made aware of the council’s plans and the lack of an Environmental Impact Statement for the 8-metre-wide road which will pass over and down alongside the Railway Line Walk, An Bord Pleanala have decided to investigate the planned road and bridge to see if an Environmental Impact Assessment should have been carried out by Westport Town Council.</div> <bR> <div> “While a Part 8 planning application by a local authority cannot be appealed to An Bord Pleanala, the Bord does have the power to oversee and even compel local authorities to carry out Environmental Impact Statements in relation to projects like roads. </div> <bR> <div> “The “Stop this road” committee welcome the Bord’s investigation and await its decision. I can also confirm that all avenues of legal action are being explored as the ignoring of the nearly 200 submissions and the lack of an Environmental Impact Statement leave the validity of the planning application open to question. If we must go down that road it will be regrettable. </div> <bR> <div> All along we have been looking for a compromise or an alternative to this road route. I call on the council, once again, to suspend its work on this project pending a full, independent assessment of the alternatives routes of access to the Cloonmonad land bank. No-one is opposed to development but we must not allow the single largest public amenity in the town to be destroyed by this road”, said Cllr Martin. </div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>