Keith urges compromise

<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>Keith urges compromise</I></div> <bR> <div> Cllr Keith Martin is calling on Westport Town Council to explore all the alternative routes of access to the Cloonmonad Land Banks.</div> <bR> <div> Labour's Cllr Keith Martin says there is about 35 acres of land zoned for housing in Cloonmonad but following the zoning of the south Westport area and the finalising of the Local Area Plan there is now over 100 additional acres of land zoned for housing in the Westport urban area. This does not include the area outside of the town which was zoned by the County Councillors and Cllr Martin says this fact takes the pressure of the need to access the Cloonmonad area via the controversial road and bridge scheme, as planned by the council. </div> <bR> <div> In the light of this Cllr Martin is pressing his fellow councillors to rethink the plan in its current form. Cllr Martin explains “no-one is against the well-planned development of the Cloonmonad land bank, what is of contention is the council’s intrusive 8-metre-wide roadway to access the area over the Railway Line Walk, through the wetlands which will bring traffic sights and sounds right down the length of what is planned to be a linear park.</div> <bR> <div> I believe there are alternatives and I have contacted my fellow councillors yesterday and urged them to discuss and examine these alternatives. This does not have to be an issue of conflict, there is a middle ground and I am urging the council to talk to the “Stop this road” committee and Westport Civic Trust to work out a compromise or an alternative. There is no longer the driving pressure on the council to access these lands as we have zoned three times as much land in the south Westport area, currently there is no shortage of appropriately zoned land and Westport Town Council can afford to put the brakes on this scheme and go over the issue once more to find a happy conclusion. Pushing ahead with this very controversial road and bridge in its current state will only lead to avoidable conflict between two groups, both of which have the good of the town at heart.”</div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>