Waterford bypass inquiry faces risk of new legal delay

A resumed hearing into the Waterford city bypass planned for November 19th may face further legal challenges, The Irish Times had learned.

Already three inquiries into the proposed road have failed to reach a conclusion after legal submissions, and in two of the inquiries it was accepted a number of mistakes were made.

The first, into the proposed road's Suir river crossing, was set aside after it was discovered one objector's evidence was not heard.

A second inquiry, held by An Bord Pleanβla into the chosen route, was suspended last August after it was discovered Waterford County Council had mixed up maps containing route options and had adopted the "wrong" route in its county development plan.

Following this, the inspector in charge of a National Roads Authority inquiry into tolling the bypass adjourned his inquiry to consider legal argument on behalf of the Butlerstown Residents' Action Group.

While the council has now moved to amend its development plan, substituting its preferred route maps for that which it mistakenly included, the action group says it may challenge the resumption of the inquiry in the courts.

At issue is the refusal of the council to listen to a last-minute appeal by the group, which wants to address the elected members on the amendment to the county development plan.

The council's director of services for planning, Mr Denis McCarthy, who recommended the amendment to the county development plan, said the appropriate place for the group to make its submissions was at the resumed An Bord Pleanβla hearing.

While the council maintains the amendment now clears the way for the An Bord Pleanβla hearing to resume on November 19th, members of the action group claim the refusal may give them grounds for a judicial review of the entire proceedings.

Separate groups are involved in opposition to the tolling of the proposed road, and the need for the road in the first place, but the Butlerstown residents say they are simply concerned with the Kilmeaden stretch of the road.

The group maintains the council's preferred route was chosen because of a reluctance to take agricultural land from the Mount Congreve estate.