By Eoin Marsh
The High Court has dismissed proceedings seeking to compel major changes to the A1/N1 Newry-Dundalk Link Road north of Dundalk, including reconstruction of part of the old N1 and redesignation of the dual carriageway as a motorway.
John Conway, who represented himself, focused his case on the section between Feede Roundabout and the former Garda station at Dromad. The A1/N1 runs from Ballymascanlon Roundabout towards the Northern Ireland border at Cloghoge and had been approved by An Bord Pleanála in September 2003.
Conway sought orders requiring the National Roads Authority to excavate filling placed over part of the former N1, provide a separate local road, cycleway and footpath, have the new road designated as a motorway and install continuous reinforced-concrete central barriers.
The NRA's evidence was that the road had been constructed in accordance with the 2003 planning approval. It also said the installed barriers complied with its design standards and the relevant European standard.
Ms Justice Laffoy held that Conway had identified no statute or other enforceable legal duty requiring the NRA to redesign the road in the manner he proposed. To the extent that his proceedings amounted to a challenge to An Bord Pleanála's 2003 decision, that challenge could only have been brought by judicial review within the applicable time limits. By 2007 the scheme had already been substantially implemented.
Conway also sought orders requiring the State to ratify the Aarhus Convention and provide him with legal and civil-engineering assistance equivalent to that available to the NRA. The court held that it had no power to compel ratification of an international agreement and that no constitutional, statutory or common-law right entitled him to the professional services sought.
A further claim seeking to compel the defendants to influence UK authorities over the Dublin-Belfast transport route was also held non-justiciable. The proceedings were dismissed in full as bound to fail.