PEOPLE opposed to the proposed greenway from Cork to Kinsale staged a protest outside County Hall on Monday and handed in a petition ahead of the council meeting.
Inside the council chamber councillor after councillor voiced grave concerns about a project that they said has left some home and landowners feeling deeply distressed.
A motion was tabled by Cllr John Collins (Ind Ire), and Cllr Alan Coleman (Ind) summarised the project being problematic on three fronts: lack of direct engagement with home and landowners; 95% of the route being on private not public land; and the need to remove the threat of people having to sell land under a compulsory purchase order.
The motion called on Cork County Council and Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) to engage ‘directly and respectfully’ with landowners and homeowners on all greenway and walkway projects.
Cllr Collins also insisted that no compulsory purchase order would be imposed on any landowner who cannot afford to accommodate a walkway through their land saying: ‘These projects must be built on consent, not coercion.’
Cllr Collins said compulsory purchase orders (CPO) were never intended to be used in this way. He said they were introduced at the founding of the state for the purchase of land for roads and in this instance would be operating far beyond its scope.
Cllr Collins said: ‘People have cancelled their holidays with the stress of this.’ He also commented on the €2.6m being paid to consultants adding: ‘This state is so good at wasting money.’
The reluctance to sell part of a holding is rooted in people wanting to provide housing for their children and grandchildren, stated Cllr Coleman. ‘The priority should not be to take land to build a greenway but to enable people to live in their locality.’
He asked council officials to meet with people in a bid to reduce the accumulated stress levels instead of ‘using a sledgehammer down on top of these people’s heads.’
Cllr Daniel Sexton (Ind Ire) said he is not against the development of greenways because they do have their benefits, but using a CPO to provide a leisure route is, he said, a no no.
Cllr Danny Collins (Ind Ire) said people were concerned that the greenway could cut through housing estates. Cllr Ann Bambury (SD) said there are huge tourism and sustainable transport benefits to the development of greenways, but she insisted that public land, not private land, should be used.
The lack of notification, or rather the manner in which the 1,700 people along the proposed route were contacted, was criticised by Cllr Ben Dalton O’Sullivan (Ind). He said letters were addressed to ‘landowner’ and often returned to An Post.
He added: ‘Elderly people are crying down the phone to me and some are relying on their neighbours to fight for them because they can’t do it themselves.’
Cllr John Michael Foley (FG) said people are waiting for the other shoe to drop when it comes to the Bandon to Clonakilty or Skibbereen to Schull greenways.
Cllr Marie O’Sullivan (FG) complained about the standard and level of communication while Cllr Isobel Towse (SD) said some of the proposed greenway route does not make sense because it is going through important biodiverse habitats.
Council chief executive Moira Murrell appealed to all sides to remember that the proposal is still in ‘the non-statutory consultation phase. ‘The whole purpose is to go out and to get back people’s views.’ She acknowledged that the council has received ‘a few thousand submissions’ all of which have to be considered. She assured the councillors that officials will engage with them after giving the submissions full consideration.
As for CPOs, she said: ‘There is an agreed protocol that is based on consensus and consultation. That is the approach that has always been taken.’
