The decision yesterday (Thursday ) by An Bord Pleanála to refuse planning permission for the long awaited stage two N26 Ballina to Bohola scheme has been met with shock and disbelief.
The application was submitted to the board in October of 2007 and it has taken the planning appeals authority until this week to reach a decision.
Stage one of the project has been completed and a preferred route for stage two selected, however that section will not now proceed.
Oral hearings were heard by the board in February 2008 and, despite over €5 million being spent on the design of the road, it will not now proceed.
“We’re back to square one,” Fine Gael councillor Cyril Burke told the Mayo Advertiser yesterday. “I’m calling on the Minister to intervene and for a major review of An Bord Pleanála,” he added. Cllr Burke has questioned how it took the authority two years to reach its decision.
He was also flabbergasted that the board’s inspector recommended granting permission for the scheme but the board ignored his recommended and has refused it.
In reaching its decision the board took into consideration the status of the River Moy as a salmon angling resource of major international importance, the designation of the Moy as a special area of conservation, and of part of the Moy Valley as a proposed natural heritage area.
The board also referred to the existing and future predicted traffic volumes on the N26 and the recent upgrade of the N26 (stage 1 ) between Ballina and Mount Falcon to a wide single carriageway.
The board claimed that it had not been demonstrated that the proposed road scheme, designed to dual carriageway standard with two major bridge crossings of the Moy, was justified. It said the scheme would pose an intrusion into the environment of the Moy River Valley.
The proposed 19 kilometre road, had it been granted permission, would have linked the existing N26 in the townland of Tonybaun to the existing N5 in the townland of Bohola, bypassing Foxford.
