Council officials in Waterford are to recommend a new route for a major road development which, it was claimed, threatened the survival of one of Europe's most important gardens.
International gardening experts had said they were "horrified" at the plan to build a dual-carriageway close to the 100-acre garden at Mount Congreve Estate in Kilmeaden.
Officials now accept that the garden would have been damaged and will recommend a new route, further south of the garden than originally planned, to a meeting of Waterford County Council on June 12th.
The officials' change of heart has angered local residents, however, who say their community will be devastated if the new route is adopted.
Mr Peter Griffin of Butlerstown Residents' Action Group, which disputes the claim that the garden was under threat, said the group would take its case to the High Court if necessary.
Construction of the road, which will give Waterford its second bridge over the Suir and allow traffic on the N25 Cork-Rosslare route to bypass the city, is due to begin next year and be completed by 2005.
The decision to change the preferred option was relayed to local councillors and Butlerstown residents this week by officials including the Waterford county manager, Mr Donal Connolly, and representatives of the National Roads Authority.
Mr Connolly said later the route favoured by the council, known as "route 17", would not have withstood an environmental impact study. "It has now been shown to us by our consultants that route 17 would have an effect on the micro-climate within the gardens at Mount Congreve."
The council was now recommending a variation of another option known as "route 9".
Mr Griffin, however, said route 17 was a compromise which had given fair treatment to everybody, including Mount Congreve Estate. "That route was voted on by the county councillors last year in Dungarvan and passed unanimously. Now we've been confronted with a total about-face."
The group had retained its own experts who said route 17 would not have damaged the micro-climate at Mount Congreve, and their views would be made known at a public inquiry. A spokesman for Mr Ambrose Congreve, the 93-year-old owner of the garden, said he welcomed the officials' stance and wished to thank everyone, including An Taisce, who had supported his call for a change of route. He had received hundreds of letters on the issue.
The estate said route 17 would have resulted in the removal of a shelter-belt of trees which protects the garden from southerly and south-westerly gales.
