Road war in Sligo
City residents and councillors battle four-lane highway
BY ROISIN DE ROSA
``We stopped them blocking up these houses. With my bare hands I
removed the concrete and blocks. It's a fight we're not going to let
up on,'' says Gabrielle Finan, a slim built lady of striking
determination and a member of Sligo's Concerned Citizens Action Group
(CCAGS).
The group is fighting for the retention of their houses and their
community against a 30-year-old Sligo Corporation plan to slap a
national primary road through their streets.
``For 30 years we've been living under the threat of this hammer
falling on our heads, that the so called Mid Block Route, a four-lane
highway proposed to relieve Sligo's traffic congestion, will get the
go ahead. The road will cut the city in two and, a CCAGS report points
out, ``will necessitate demolition/destruction of some 40 well built,
lovely old houses where people have lived for generations, 27
commercial properties and 42 offices, gardens etc.''
Decision time
Dispute over the Mid Block Route proposal has gone on over the years.
What has changed things now is the newly elected Corporation, with its
three Sinn Féin councillors. The majority of councillors are now
opposed to the Mid Block Route.
Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPOs) on houses began in the 1980s.
Without so much as a word from Corporation officials, residents saw
their houses listed `for demolition' in local newspapers. The CCAG
filed a complaint to Brussels, and in 1993, the then Minister for the
Environment, Michael Smith, refused to authorise the road and ordered
the Corporation to undertake a further environmental impact study.
The CCAG found the new study to be seriously flawed and made further
complaints, and finally the Corporation commissioned another report
from leading planning experts at UCD, the `2020 A Vision Strategy'.
This November 1998 report came down against the Mid Block Route.
Opponents of the road claim a cover up by the Corporation. The report
apparently was not disclosed until it was leaked to the press, just
before a sworn public inquiry was to begin last June.
Acting Sligo Town Clerk John O'Dwyer says that the corporation has not
received the report of this sworn public inquiry yet, though it
finished over four months ago. A spokesperson for the Department of
the Environment agrees that it's a bit strange that the report is not
yet available, but ``they expect it within the next two weeks''.
The decision on the road now rests with Minister for the Environment,
Noel Dempsey, along with authorisation for Compulsory Purchase Orders
on a further 12 houses, which would have to go if the road went ahead.
Whatever decision the minister may reach, however, it is enabling but
not compelling. The proposed road cannot go ahead against the decision
of the councillors.
`Hammer over the houses'
May Carey explains what it has meant to people who live in this John's
Street area, beside the planned route. ``We've not been able to do
anything with our houses. We wanted to put in a bathroom, people
needed new roofs, we couldn't do it. We were waiting. My neighbour,
who is 80 years old, wanted to put in central heating. `Do nothing
with your houses', the Corporation said.'' May's family have been in
their house since the start of the century in 1904. ``We're not going
to give it up now.''
Argument over the road turns on whether the large proportion of
traffic ends in Sligo or is through traffic on what is a national
route, the N4, and a trans-Europe link from the South West to Belfast.
Damien Tansey, solicitor for the Action Group, draws on evidence to
suggest that 80 per cent of the traffic is through traffic.
``The Mid Block route meets none of the transport targets outlined in
the Operational Programme for Transport 1994-1999 as requirements for
strategic corridors, or a trans-European link. Times have moved on
from when the plan was first mooted, and away from inner relief routes
in favour of a bypass of the town.''
Mid-Block-Route only temporary
``There is a plan for a Western bypass to be built within the next ten
years. The proposed route goes between the city and the harbour. The
Mid Block Route is only a temporary relief measure for the N4 traffic,
so why build it at all?'' asks Sinn Féin Councillor Chris MacManus.
Sligo Corporation has asked Minister Dempsey for immediate go ahead
for the city by-pass and a halt to the Mid-Block-Route proposal.
According to City Engineer Gerry Cannon, so far 22 houses have already
been acquired through CPO and a further 12 CPOs are waiting with the
Minister for authorisation. Councillor MacManus points out that in the
context of Sligo's chronic housing problem, with 506 on the housing
list, it is criminal to demolish good houses to build a temporary
four-lane highway through a residential area where people have lived
for years. We should simply expedite building the city by-pass.''
Manager Threatens legal action
Matters have come to a head at the two last council meetings, where
County and City Manager Hubert Kearns asked the councillors to
authorise opening the tenders submitted for demolition work on Union
Street properties, which have been bought by compulsory purchase order
by the Corporation. Twice the councillors have refused.
The manager has branded their action unlawful and has threatened
unspecified legal action against the councillors. Acting Town Clerk
John O'Dwyer says that the ``demolition work has nothing to do with the
building of the Mid Block Route''. He says it relates largely to
warehousing and back yards of residential property.
Sinn Féin Alderman Sean MacManus says, however, that he considers the
demolition work, if allowed, would be used as another lever to push
through the road.
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