Ardee By-Pass plans can’t be altered
PLANS for the long awaited Ardee By-Pass can’t be altered, Louth County Council boss Joan Martin told councillors but she undertook to talk to the engineers to see if there was a way of looking at the issue of connectivity.
Local councillors Jim Tenanty, Dolores Minogue and Pearse McGeough told the meeting that residents of the Mullenstown and Townsparks areas were worried that they would be cut off when the Bye-Pass is built.
Cllr Tennety said that a lot had changed since the plans were drawn up for the By-Pass in 2006 and he feared that if it goes ahead, the town will be cut off from its hinterland.
Chief Executive Joan Martin said that it wouldn’t be possible to revisit the scheme.
She explained that all the permissions were in place since before the recession and they had gone through the standard protocol including CPO and they couldn’t now go back to the drawing board. The only chance it has of going ahead is because it’s ready to run - it’s a scheme that can be put in place very quickly,’ she explained. That was why the opportunity had arisen to get it built and take the traffic out of Ardee,
Cllr Minogue said that the residents wouldn’t want to stop the By-Pass and Cllr Tenanty wondered if would be possible to have a supplementary plan to address the residents’ concerns.