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[Press Release: November 9th, 2004] De Burca to ask Minister Roche to investigate fiasco surrounding Kilpedder interchangeFollowing last Monday's meeting of Wicklow County Council at which the issue of the proposed new location for the Kilpedder interchange was discussed, Green Party councillor, Deirdre de Burca has stated that she intends asking the Minister for the Environment, Dick Roche, to appoint officials from his department to fully investigate the matter."The entire series of events that surround this land are bizarre and raise legitimate questions of concern" says de Burca. "The council took an unsuccessful legal case in 1998 against the landowner, Doyle, for what it claimed was unauthorised landfillling on this land. Councillors on Wicklow County Council then decided to zone the land for employment purposes in the 1999 County Development Plan, against the advice of the planners. Wicklow County Council had plans at this time to construct an interchange at Kilpedder in order to improve road safety on the N11, and to facilitate future development in Greystones and Doyle's land at Drummin East was included in the land- take area for the road and interchange. The council's CPO process was confirmed in 2001". "However, it would appear that the council then engaged in a fundamental change of mind about the location and size of the proposed interchange at Kilpedder" she says. "We are told that this change of mind arose from a realisation that a bigger interchange was needed at Kilpedder, given the rapid expansion of Greystones, which one imagines the council should have anticipated. However, rather than constructing the larger interchange on Doyle's land which it was in the process of compulsorily purchasing, the council decided to identify a totally new site for the interchange for which it would have to start a new CPO process. The County Manager has claimed that Doyle's Drummin East land was not considered by the council for the new larger interchange because of concerns about the possibility of contaminated materials on the land. The re-location of the interchange is likely to cost the council an added 20 million euros of tax-payer's money and it has been suggested that Mr Doyle may also seek compensation from the council because it no longer intends following through on the CPO process agreed with him." De Burca claims that matters became even more bizarre at a recent council meeting in October of this year dealing with the new County Development Plan. "The County Manager urged councillors very strongly to vote to retain the employment zoning on the land at Drummin East, against the objections of the Dublin Transportation Office and concerns expressed by the National Roads Authority" she says. "He also did not inform councillors that the council had concerns, based on tests that had been carried out, about possible contaminated materials on the Drummin East site. Councillors should have had this information when they were voting on whether to keep the employment zoning on the land or not. It was very strange that the Manager did not bring this information to the attention of councillors, particularly those who are new on the council". De Burca claims that she will be writing to the Minister for the Environment, Dick Roche, to ask for his department to investigate this matter. "Surely the Minister cannot allow a local authority to behave in this way without any real accountability to the taxpayers, or to their elected representatives, especially where significant extra costs are involved" she says. "The Manager is always warning councillors that they may be 'surcharged' or landed with the costs if they make bad or faulty decisions. I assume the same applies to council officials and certainly we as councillors should be insisting that those responsible for this fiasco should be held accountable".
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