Councillor wants left-over motorway space handed back

The land parcels off the Galway to Athlone motorway should be handed back to neighbouring farmers in order to prevent illegal settlements of Travellers.

That’s according to one Galway Councillor who pointed to extensive portions of land acquired by compulsory purchase order along the M6 motorway, some of which are now occupied by encampments.

It has been something of a major issue in the Ballinasloe area in particular where even access roads to facilitate the construction of the motorway are now being occupied by Traveller caravans.

Major efforts are under way to try and put both the access roads and the pockets of land on the sides of the motorway back into the hands of local landowners who would have a legal right for the caravans to be removed.

It seems to be a much more complex and lengthy legal process for the likes of Galway County Council to have the caravans removed.

There is now a major litter issue in the areas in which they are currently located.

The matter came before Ballinasloe Municipal Council when Cllr Dermot Connolly of Sinn Fein said that there were land parcels along the motorway which were being “blackguarded”. He did not elaborate on this at the meeting.

Cllr Connolly said that he would be advocating that these lands be used in a positive way and should be handed back to local farmers for agricultural use.

He said that the lands off the motorway should be divided among local farmers but at the moment they were the subject of abuse. He said that the neighbouring landowners were very angry by what was happening.

Director of Services for Roads and Transportation, Liam Gavin asked that any land parcel off the M6 motorway that was being inappropriately used should be brought to the Council’s attention immediately.

Mr Gavin said that they had already dealt with issues relating to access roads that were provided for the construction of the motorway. Progress was being made in this regard.

It is now the Council’s intention to hand back these access roads to local landowners and the same could be the case with the extensive land pockets along the motorway which would make for very good cattle and sheep grazing.

The matter is expected to come before the next meeting of the Municipal Council to seek if there is any progress on this.