Westport Fianna Fáil back opposition to Murrisk Greenway route

The Fianna Fáil organisation in Westport have expressed their support to local opposition of the preferred route option of the controversial Murrisk Greenway.

A public meeting organised by a group opposed to the preferred route option of the Westport to Murrisk Greenway is to take place this evening in Lecanvey Community Centre at 8pm.

In advance of the meeting, the Fianna Fáil organisation in Westport passed a motion to express their 'unequivocal support' to the affected landowners who are opposed to the proposed route going through their land.

In a statement, the Fianna Fáil organisation in Westport stated that at a meeting of their cumann on Thursday evening, a proposal to support the landowners and property owners on the Belclare to Murrisk proposed greenway was 'unequivocally supported'.

“The meeting heard from Cllr Brendan Mulroy who said that the Belclare to Murrisk greenway committee are not against greenways and believe the best option for the community and tourists would be to develop a greenway along the R335 which is the main road from Westport to Murrisk.

“The Westport Fianna Fáil Cumann said that they wholeheartedly support the local landowners and property owners,” the statement read.

The Murrisk Greenway project is being developed by Mayo County Council in conjunction with Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII). The preferred route option will see the Greenway go off road from Aughavale Cemetery via the townlands of Cloonagh, Kiladangan and Deerpark towards Murrisk and will cut through land at the foot of Croagh Patrick.

The local Belclare to Murrisk Committee who oppose the controversial preferred route option have called a meeting for this evening Friday, April 19 in Lecanvey Community Centre at 8pm. They are inviting landowners from Belclare to Louisburgh who may be affected by future greenways to listen to a number of speakers who they have invited to address the meeting.

The speakers will include Gerard Quinn, Professor Emeritus in law at the University of Galway while there will also be speakers who will speak on the environmental concerns of greenways as well as members of farmers groups who did not sign up to the Greenway Code.

A spokesperson for the committee said they were inviting all landowners from Belclare to Louisburgh to attend and listen to how future greenway planning will affect them in the future.

Meanwhile the Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association (INHFA) have joined the IFA in raising concerns about the way greenways are being developed throughout the country.

INHFA Vice-President John Joe Fitzgerald expressed major reservations around the approach taken by some county councils when looking to acquire land for their Greenways.

“We have seen enormous pressure applied on local residents to acquiesce to Greenway routes that will impact heavily on their farming enterprise, undermine their privacy and cause significant distribution in accessing their homes and businesses.

“This pressure has seen landowners threatened with the possibility of CPOs and guilt-tripping people with the line that this will be good for the community and do they really want to hold up progress,” he said.

With regard to CPOs, Fitzgerald was adamant that this option should never be used for Greenways as they are not a critical infrastructure, and stressed that county councils need to look again at how they deal with landowners and communities and detailed the need 'for active ongoing engagement'.

Mr Fitzgerald also questioned 'the commitment by the Government to spend €360 million per year in providing walk and cycle ways'.

“It is reasonable to ask who is going to be using them especially when we see the dramatic fall in numbers on prominent greenways such as the Great Western Greenway in Mayo. While hotel availability has been cited as a possible factor in the falling numbers we should also recognise that there is a ceiling on the number of people that will partake in this activity and consequently the offering should acknowledge this fact.

“It is vital that the Government recognise that their Greenway ambitions could be running out of steam and maybe the funding allocated here could deliver better outcomes if spent on our national road network or other projects. On this basis we are asking that the Government carries out a cost benefit analysis on the Greenway Programme prior to the start-up of any new projects.”