National planning out of sync with what’s needed in Sligo, Minister told
A SLIGO councillor has told Transport Minister Eamon Ryan that national planning guidelines are “totally out of sync” with what is needed in counties like Sligo and others in this region.
Cllr Dónal Gilroy also said that it is the minister who needs to make a decision on whether the closed Western Railway Corridor is going to be a railway or a greenway. As chair of the Border Strategic Planning area of the Northern and Western Regional Assembly Area, the Sligo councillor was among a group of five councillors who, along with NWRA director David Minton, met online with Minister Eamon Ryan on Friday. The meeting began with
David Minton
giving a presentation on the needs of the North West region and how it was now classified by the EU as “Region in Transition” but if it was measured today would be classified as a “Less Developed Region”. He delivered the message that without a balanced regional investment with positive discrimination to the North West we would continue underperform as a region.
Minister Ryan gave a presentation with a special emphasis on energy production and the opportunities in the region for wind energy and how this would influence where investment would come to in the future. He said he believed that investors would invest close to where the power is to ensure security of supply.
The Minister discussed the National Planning Framework which is based on a “Town Centre First” but said that this need not necessarily be seen as being against the country. He then went on to speak about why Sligo has fallen so far behind Galway from a development point of view, and spoke of transport infrastructure, praising the Western Distributor Road which he claimed was already taking cars out of the town centre and making it a more attractive urban realm. Cllr Gilroy argued that the planning guidelines for major metropolitan areas like Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick did not fit with the needs of smaller regional centres like Sligo, Letterkenny or Athlone.
He went on to say that the Border area of Donegal, Leitrim, Sligo, Cavan and Monaghan should in fact be classified as a “Lagging Region” and that the region’s situation had become even more challenging because of Brexit.
Cllr Gilroy also challenged Minister Ryan on the density levels set in national and regional plans that were totally out of sync with what would be needed in small towns and villages throughout Sligo and the region.
He said that the reason why people were happy to put up with the cost and inconvenience of living in an area slightly less serviced by public transport, education and health facilities was that they could live and raise their families in a place that is less crowded and has less socio-economic problems than densely populated urban areas. The Western Rail Corridor came up for discussion when councillors explained to the Minister that the region needs both greenways and a railway link, not just from Galway to Sligo but on to Letterkenny. Cllr Gilroy said that after much discussion Minister Ryan gave his assurance that he was in favour of the railway line being extended from Tuam to Claremorris and that it was his view that there would be no other development on that part of the line.
“From Claremorris to Collooney he was less clear and in fact stated that it ‘was up to Sligo and Mayo County Councils to come together on this and plan a greenaway’ that would benefit the region. He clearly indicated that the Collooney to Enniskillen greenway would be the first to proceed in the region.”
Cllr. Gilroy said: “We as a region need a Minister for Transport to classify the railway from Claremorris either as a viable railway line to connect the region or an abandoned railway line that could be handed over to the two councils to develop as a greenway.
“We have had a number of Transport ministers who have refused to make this basic decision and allow the councils and Irish Rail to move on and use this vital piece of infrastructure to benefit our region.”