HGV ban will be lifted, says councillor

Dublin city manager John Tierney plans to lift the city ban on heavy goods vehicles (HGVs), due to come into force next Monday, by allowing lorries to enter the cordon from the south if the traffic levels on the M50 lead to further congestion, a Labour councillor has claimed.

The ban was advanced to remove large lorries from the city and inner suburbs by forcing them to use the Dublin Port Tunnel.

Labour councillor Kevin Humphreys told fellow councillors in the southeast of the city yesterday that he has learned that Mr Tierney intends to reopen the southern route to the port along the Strand Road and Seán Moore Road if M50 traffic is exacerbated by the ban.

However, a spokesman for Mr Tierney said last night that he had "made no comment about lifting the cordon". The cordon would be reviewed in six months' time and Mr Tierney would consult councillors about any changes he deemed necessary, the spokesman said.

The council's strategy will ban HGVs with five axles or more from 7am to 7pm within a city cordon that includes the Royal and Grand canals as well as Sandymount, Ringsend and part of the Navan Road.

Last April the former city manager John Fitzgerald warned councillors the proposed HGV ban would cause "absolute chaos" on the M50 if they did not allow access to the port from the Seán Moore Road. However, councillors voted to implement a fully-closed cordon.

Council figures indicate the ban will put an extra 2,000 HGVs on to the M50 every day. With the ban in place, HGVs coming from the southeast would join the M50 at Bray, Co Wicklow, or any point west of Bray and continue north until they reached the tunnel. If the cordon is lifted HGVs will be able to access the port directly from the south. This means they will continue to drive through the suburbs of Sandymount and Merrion and the neighbouring local authority area of Dún Laoghaire/Rathdown.

Southeast area councillors are seeking an urgent meeting with the council's director of traffic Michael Phillips.