Council hopes protesters will now call off action at Glen

Wicklow County Council plans to go ahead with its £18.5 million road-widening scheme at the Glen of the Downs early in the New Year, the council said yesterday.

Commenting after the Supreme Court yesterday rejected an appeal by anti-road protesters, some of whom have been camped in the glen for more than two years, the council said it hoped the protesters would now disband their camp peacefully and "accept that they had made their point".

The council was supported by the National Roads Authority, which claimed that the 10-year delay between "decision and development" was a textbook example of difficulties which have contributed to the infrastructural backlog in relation to roads.

Mr Dermot Murphy, who took the court action, would not say yesterday if the court decision was the end of the campaign.

Some of the protesters camped at the glen have, in the past, spoken of taking the case to Europe.

The Wicklow county secretary, Mr Bryan Doyle, said it was the council's hope the protesters would accept they had aired the issues, and had made their point.

The county council may go back to the courts for an order against trespass, he indicated, but he hoped this would not be necessary.

Mr Doyle said the county council had not received credit for adopting a compromise plan after consultation with the locals and had held off while every legal avenue open to the protesters was explored.

"Now we would hope that we would be able to get on and that there wouldn't be any difficulty", he said.

Mr Doyle added that final design details revealed that 500 to 600 trees would be removed, with many times that being replanted.

He repeated the council's view that the scheme had now been through the full planning process and the courts and should now be allowed to proceed.

"The cost was estimated at £18.5 million two years ago when this started. Now it is at £22 million," he said.

The protesters at the camp have not indicated in recent times that they would disband if the action went against them. Yesterday, the camp was quiet but it was evident the protesters are occupying more sites on both sides of the glen than they did when the legal challenge began in January 1998.

In recent months the county council discovered a number of tunnels on the west side of the glen and protesters at the camp claimed it would be unsafe to bring men and machinery on site. They also said that as members of their camp may be in tunnels, it would be dangerous to organise a felling operation there. In October they said they were seeking reassurances from the council that should the it win in court, physical force would not be used to evict them.

Wicklow Fianna Fail TD Mr Dick Roche said that as the protesters had "availed of the law to support their cause, they should now abide by it and leave peacefully".