Councillors complain of exclusion from consultation on light rail project

LOCAL councillors have been excluded from the consultation process on the LUAS light rail system and other transportation initiatives, a local authority meeting of the Dublin Transportation Office has been told.

Ms Roisin Short all, a Labour party TD and South Dublin councillor, said that anyone who criticised the LUAS or other issues was considered "a basher or a knocker". Councillors had no say on decisions such as the Dublin port tunnel, she said, adding that the meeting had backed her proposal that the north entrance of the port tunnel should be moved from Whitehall to the Airways Industrial Estate in Santry.

Mr John Henry, chief executive of the DTO, said that there was a serious deficiency in the LUAS consultation process when councillors were not addressed as local representatives and were only invited "in the same way as any Joe Soap from the public". He added, however, that local authorities needed to be more active rather than reactive and to specify what they wanted to see from the system in their area.

Mr Henry said that he would push for detailed consultations with councillors before moving on to public discussion.

Councillor Olivia Mitchell (FG, Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown) conceded that there had been public consultations, but said that the people who had attended these meetings were public relations officials who did not have the required technical expertise.

A Labour Party TD and South Dublin councillor, Mr Eamonn Walsh, said that the public was losing confidence in the light rail project. Councillors did not have enough information to push the project forward, he added.

Councillor Don Tipping (DL, South Dublin) asked who was making the decisions and said that there was a need to go into the "nitty gritty detail" of plans such as where the "park and ride" facilities should be and whether the light rail route should go up the median of the Naas Road.

Meanwhile, the Dublin Cycling Campaign has welcomed plans to construct a cycle lane alongside the Harcourt Street line as part of the LUAS project.