Landowners along proposed Cork City to Kinsale Greenway mount protest in the rain in ‘huge numbers’

By Peter McCarthy, Corkman

Cork County Council is urging people to engage with the consultation process for the proposed Cork City to Kinsale Greenway as opposition grows from landowners along the preferred route.

The greenway is being funded by Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) and will run for around 25 kilometres between the city and the West Cork town. This month Cork County Council held three events to showcase what is known as the Emerging Preferred Route Corridor and seek feedback from the public. It was the third such public consultation on the project.

Around one hundred people from the area the greenway will pass through gathered outside the final event near the Viaduct on the Old Bandon Road this week to protest what they say is a lack of consultation with them.

Cork South-West TD Michael Collins, who attended the protest, told the Irish Independent that “people were telling me that they had little or no consultation, only dictation through letters. Unfortunately, it seems like the TII are telling the landowners that if they don't cooperate here, they’ll do a CPO [Compulsory Purchase Order] on their lands.

“Now, some of these people are extremely upset, many of them are elderly, they may not be farmers, they could be landowners, they could just own an acre or a garden for a house, and they're being dictated to.”

Deputy Collins pointed to existing greenways in West Cork such as at Sheep’s Head where routes were agreed by consultation and negotiation “and there were no CPOs involved.”

“You can't dictate to people, you cannot walk in and grab their grounds and walk out, thinking that that doesn’t leave an effect in a local community. People were out in huge numbers in torrential rain yesterday evening, they wanted to send a message, they want their own grounds protected,” the Independent Ireland leader said.

At this week’s Bandon-Kinsale Municipal District meeting, Cork County Council’s Padraig Barrett said that 2,500 letters have been issued to landowners living along the preferred route and he urged more people to submit their feedback.

“We’re doing our best to engage with the public. The current public consultation is not statutory, it’s not required under the legislation. We’re going above and beyond to get people to engage,” Mr Barrett said.

“I apologise for any upset caused but we have to get people to engage and the purpose of this non-statutory consultation is to get this feedback. We need to hear from the people.”

Mr Barrett said there is no pre-determined route for the greenway: “The purpose of this [the public consultation] is to find the best corridor, the path that does the least damage and is the safest option.”

Speaking at the same meeting, Cllr Ann Bambury said she has been contacted by people who said they didn’t receive any letter, map, or formal notification indicating that their land was located within the proposed route corridor prior to the latest public consultation.

“This lack of early communication has understandably caused upset and undermined confidence in the consultation process. Landowners expected to be treated with transparency and respect, especially when their land is potentially impacted by a major infrastructure project,” she said.

Feedback on the greenway can be submitted at https://corkkinsalegreenway.ie until August 15.