Get rid of CPO option for greenways, Cork councillors urge minister
CorkmanCompulsory Purchase Orders (CPOs) should never be used for non-essential infrastructure such as greenways, according to councillors living along the route of the proposed Cork city to Kinsale greenway.
In a motion brought before this week’s meeting of Cork County Council, Fine Gael Councillors John Michael Foley and Jack White called on the local authority to write to the Minister for Transport urging him to reconsider the use of CPOs to acquire land for greenway projects.
Cllr Foley said that CPOs are “one of the strongest powers available to the state. They allow lands to be taken from people not because they choose to sell but because they are forced to. That power should be used only where it is absolutely necessary and in the clear public interest.”
“CPOs were created to deliver essential infrastructure such as roads, hospitals, schools, flood defences, utilities, things that society cannot function without and where no reasonable alternative exists. They should not be used to deliver non-essential projects such as greenways. Greenways may be desirable, they may even be beneficial, but they are not essential,” he said.
Cllr Jack White said he is a “huge believer” in greenways and their positive spin-offs for communities but he doesn’t believe they should be constructed using CPOs. “We do acknowledge that it's very, very rare that CPOs have been used but I think in areas where a proposed greenway route appears controversial, even the outside possibility that CPOs might be arrived at sets a dangerous precedent and a kind of an unwelcome part of the dialogue,” he said.
Cllr White said that in Carrigaline “we dealt with an extremely difficult stretch of what is effectively a greenway. We got that through the planning process through multiple meetings, engagement of residents and the management of the council, which was excellent. We got through what I thought was an impossible situation at the time. I think there's a really strong place for dialogue, there's a place for cohesion and bringing people with us.”
Several councillors spoke in support of the motion, including Cllr John Collins who has repeatedly criticised the possibility of CPOs being used on the Cork-Kinsale greenway route. “I've already spoken on this subject on several occasions here and everybody knows my feelings on CPOs for non-essential infrastructure. I'm just glad that the Fine Gael Party has come on board, it took maybe six months, but I welcome it.”
A dissenting voice came from Cllr Isobel Towse who said that while CPOs should only be used as a last resort, “I fear that if we didn't have CPOs at all, then we wouldn't have greenways. It obviously is very unfortunate for the individuals but I would hope that it's very, very few that would have to have their land CPO'ed and that alternative route corridors can be found. But I think we need the CPOs at the end of the day.”
The Cork-Kinsale greenway proposal has been controversial, attracting over 2,000 public submissions. Cork County Council Chief Executive Moira Murrell told councillors in December that the proposal is still in the non-statutory phase of assessing the most appropriate route. “We're at the point of just looking to see where that route might be and what it might look like,” she said.
The council will now write to the Transport Minister about CPO use for non-essential infrastructure.