Greenway funding process ‘making a mountain out of a molehill’ – Tipperary councillor
The process for securing funding for greenway projects is “making a mountain out of a molehill”, according to a Tipperary councillor who has called for a simplified system.
Independent councillor Máirín McGrath made the claims at the March meeting of Tipperary County Council, during a debate about a motion she tabled.
Cllr McGrath’s motion called on the council to write to the Department of Transport and Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) seeking a simplified process for accessing funding for greenway and blueway projects, giving the local authority more autonomy on proposed routes and designs.
Speaking at the meeting, Cllr McGrath said the current process was too arduous, pointing to the proposed greenway linking Cahir and Cashel along the Old Dublin Road (N8) through New Inn.
"The policy that we have to follow to unlock the funding from the TII and the Department of Transport is, in my opinion, making a mountain out of a molehill,” Cllr McGrath said.
"We’re currently at the second round of public consultation, and that’s always vital, however, we’ve had to open a wide study area and design five route options through many private landholdings, when this was never the intention.
"This is causing unnecessary stress to landowners who are anxious at the notion of their land being in a proposed blue or greenway, but this is being done just so we can tick a box to satisfy the policy, despite there being an obvious and preferred route,” she explained.
The proposed greenway would link the towns of Cahir and Cashel with a walking and cycling route designed to promote active travel.
Situations like this one should have a more simplified process, the independent councillor argued, saying that the process was costing a lot of money, for very little reason.
"We’re spending hundreds of thousands of euro on consultants to design these possible routes, again, just to tick a box to say that we’ve done it, and it’s a shameful waste of money,” Cllr McGrath said.
"I was shocked to learn that the proposed cost per kilometre of this project is estimated at €1million to €2million, and the route itself is around 20 kilometres long, so an unbelievable cost,” she said.
Cllr McGrath said that there were a number of examples where county councils in other parts of the country were able to add a footpath or cycle path along a busy road without having to jump through the same hoops.
"On the N77 between Abbeyleix and Durrow, and that runs parallel to the N8 as well, on the N16 in Claremorris and the N86 between Dingle and Annascaul in Kerry, where a simple cycle and footpath has been designed, separated from the road by a crash barrier, but it didn’t go through all the hoops that we are facing,” she said.
"I think that the policy should be amended by the Department going forward, so future schemes are not tied in to do these exercises just as a box ticking exercise,” she added.
Sinn Féin councillor Annemarie Ryan seconded Cllr McGrath’s motion, saying that councillors and locals assumed that the obvious route would be chosen, without the need for different route options.
"I think we all naively assumed that was going to be the route, so we got a bit of a shock when we saw the five different routes, and like Cllr McGrath mentioned, the money, it just seems like madness,” she said.
"The fact that there’s comparisons that Cllr McGrath spoke about there, it comes down to more autonomy at local level, efficient spending of public money and a route that is already identified. I get it if you’re starting from scratch, but we have a route identified already, so I really want to support this motion,” Cllr Ryan said.