City bid talks in the Dail
BRAVING the onset of the wintry weather, the Drogheda City Status Committee and Fianna Fail’s Anthony Moore travelled to Leinster House last Monday for a warm reception from the Fianna Fail spokesperson on Local Government, Meath West TD Shane Cassells, to whom they voiced their concerns about the impact on Drogheda of the Project 2040 National Development Plan, unveiled by the government in mid-February.
The Committee made a detailed presentation to Deputy Cassells about what it saw as the flaws in the 2040 plan, including its failure to recognise Drogheda as a city despite its meeting European criteria for city status due to population density per kilometre, exceeding 50,000 inhabitants and its failure to identify it as a regional centre where growth could be focused, despite smaller towns like Athlone and Sligo obtaining such status under the plan. It pointed out that the plan completely overlooked Laytown, Bettystown and Mornington area as a significant urban area in the North East, undermining its ability to develop properly.
The Committee emphasised that Drogheda, particularly with the activation of the northern cross-route, was more than capable of fulfilling all of the government’s fundamental planning objectives, such as compact growth and strong economic performance, and that this would bring a lot of jobs to the town. Despite this, the National Development Plan’s discussion of investment in the border region made no mention of the cross-route and its importance for the future development of the town.
Anthony Moore, who helped to organise the meeting, said:- “I’m very grateful to Deputy Cassells for making himself available to meet with us last week. As someone who worked in Drogheda for a good many years before becoming a TD, he knows the town well and he listened carefully to the excellent presentation made by the Committee. ‘ They identified a number of serious flaws in the Development Plan which will cost Drogheda jobs and investment unless they are remedied. As a member of Fianna Fail but also as a proud Drogheda man, I hope that our meeting will ensure that Drogheda will be high on Fianna Fail’s agenda when it comes to developing the North East region in the future.
‘As my party colleague Cllr. Tommy Byrne keeps saying, it is vital we get the cross-route up and running and I will be fighting for that.”