Concerns raised over Mincloon junction land
The issue was raised by Cllr Eddie Hoare (FG) at a Central Local Area Committee meeting.
While welcoming proposed safety upgrades at Mincloon, Cllr Hoare said transparency around land acquisition was essential.
“It does need to be upgraded, but transparency surrounding what land was bought, and why, should be shared with us,” he said.
He became aware of the land purchase through a press release and Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) application documents, despite being told at a January information briefing that there was no update.
“I got more information from the TII application,” he said at the meeting. “We deserve to know how much land was bought and what the plans are for the junction.
“A lot of the housing development is down the Rahoon Road and, from the indications on the TII funding application, it looks like they are going up the Mincloon Road with most of the road safety improvements at the junction.”
Cllr Hoare said he has been seeking upgrades to the Circular Road and Letteragh Road T-junction for almost a decade but had repeatedly been told that any improvements would require the purchase of land.
Over the last five years, almost 500 new homes have been built along Letteragh Road and the significant increase in traffic should have made the Circular Road/Letteragh Road junction a priority.
Council officials said the land was bought as part of a safety improvement scheme.
An application was made to the Department of Transport for funding for Mincloon Cross under the Safety Improvement Scheme.
As a result, grant funding had been approved, but no detailed design had yet been completed.
“It was a low-cost safety scheme,” officials said.
“There have been a large number of collisions and we applied to the scheme to see if visibility improvements could be made. This required land acquisition and that was progressed. We have no detailed design yet”.
Report funded by the Local Democracy Scheme