Cllr Mike Crowe has said he will next week seek to remove the Roscam to Renmore part of the Dublin to Galway cycleway from the Galway City Development Plan. According to Cllr Crowe the proposed route was submitted by the National Transport Authority without any consultation with the landowners.
“The community in Roscam have not had one iota of consultation about this route despite it dividing the lands of the area in to two,” he said this week. “It will impact on farming, impact on homes, and impact on people’s overall wellbeing. National or local authorities cannot nor should not be allowed to get away with this dictatorial approach. This community and indeed its local councillors will not stand idly by while fat cat consultants and senior officials in various national departments and organisations try to drive a coach and four through our community, with little or no regard for the effect on the residents and their environs. Not alone that, but the route coming from the Coast Road, Oranmore, in to the city is madness and would largely be unsuitable for the majority of local people who would like to cycle in from there. It actually would significantly increase your journey as opposed to staying on the main road. That alone makes no sense.”
According to Cllr Crowe some sixty per cent of the land which the cycleway passes through between Athlone and Galway is in private ownership.
“Yet not one owner had any forewarning or consultation on this,” he claimed. “For example in Moycullen and Oughterard, despite many landowners having serious concerns and a genuine deep worry on the impact the route will have on them in their area, on their homes and livelihood, they have been more or less ignored. They feel that no one has stood up for them and they have been left somewhat isolated. This cannot be repeated in the city. It is not right.
