‘Toll will be of no use to town’ - O’Dowd
In Junior Chamber, Droghcda’s Schools’ Debating Contest on Tuesday night, St. Mary’s C.B.S. won a place in the final by defeating Our Lady’s, Greenhills who proposed the motion “It’s a man’s world.” Meanwhile in the Second semifinal on Friday the Grammar School take on the Sacred Heart School. The Grammar School on Monday night defeated the Vocational School, who proposed the motion “civilisation is on the decline.” The final will take place during Community Week,
This week’s teams were — Vocational Schools, Aidan Phillips, Mary Smithers, Pat Cunningham and Joe Maguire.
Grammar School; Marc La Fontaine. Carol Tyner, Simon Allen and Broderick Allen.
Greenhills: Geraldine Byrne, Barbara Sweeney, Marie Doran and Margaret Henry. St. Mary’s C.B.S.: Eamonn Campbell, Arthur Goring, Patrick Mason and Pierce Branigan.
Judges on Monday were Pat Byrne and Colm Cullen of Greenhills and on Tuesday, Larry Finegan, Grammar School and Mary Halligan, Sacred Heart.
DROGHEDA councillors have this week hit out at the planned toll on the Drogheda bypass claiming the charge is an extra and unneeded tax forced upon road users and will exacerbate Drogheda’s traffic problems.
Senator Fergus O’Dowd claimed the toll charge was a ‘contradiction in terms’ and backed the Fine Gael motion opposing the toll.
He said: ‘ The reason the bypass was built in the first place was to take all of the through traffic out of the town. The toll on the bypass will exacerbate the problem in Drogheda because people will be put off by the toll charge and will continue to pass through Drogheda instead.’
Sen. O’Dowd said he fell aggrieved because the toll charge will affect Drogheda but the money raised will be of no benefit to the town.
‘If it was used for an Eastern bypass of the town or a new bridge to take the port traffic away from the town centre then I would look differently on it,’ said the Senator. ‘Once these tolls are in place they will be there for decades with none of the money raised going back into Drogheda.’
He went on to point out that no funding is available for the proposed Port Access Route, which is ‘a significant disadvantage’ to the town.
Louth councillor, Michael O’Dowd, claimed the National Hoads Authority needed to be ‘ brought to heel’ on this issue.
Mr. O’Dowd said the NRA’s intention to use funds from the Drogheda Tolls to build the Western link road in Dundalk would make ‘whipping hoys’ out of Drogheda motorway users for a new bypass around Dundalk.