Roads programme grinds to a halt

Date Published: 26-Mar-2009

THE much vaunted public private partnership initiative to build a number of County Galway roads is now dead in the water – as Galway County Council cannot even spend the money to purchase the lands required.

In fact the whole roads programme for County Galway has been stalled and cannot be progressed without first getting permission from the Department of Finance.

It means that even repairs to minor roads around the countywill not be carried out as a freeze has been put on Galway County Council spending.

But most significantly it has been revealed that there will be no spending on the compulsory acquisition of land along the route of the new M17 which was given the approval by An Bord Pleanala
last week.

The Planning Appeals Board gave the green light forthe compulsory purchase of land along the 25 km stretch but even that stage cannot be proceeded with.

In fact there are predictions that there will be no funds made available for the M17 Tuam to Athenry route, the Tuam bypass or Gort to Oranmore stretch until the current recession comes to an end.

“The rural roads network in the county is going to go from bad to worse over the next couple of years if the freeze on spending continues after the Budget”, according to Cllr. Sean Canney.

He said that the public private partnership idea was…