Road protesters warned against further action

Wicklow Co Council expects protesters who interfered with the council's tree-felling at the Glen of the Downs yesterday to be brought before the courts if they repeat their protest, the county secretary, Mr Bryan Doyle, said yesterday.

Commenting on the council's decision to resume the felling work, which was initially interrupted by protesters in January of 1998, Mr Doyle pointed out that it has now been 10 years since the decision was taken to widen and upgrade the 7 km section of the N11 between Kilmacanogue and the southern end of the Glen in north County Wicklow.

Mr Doyle said the High Court and the Supreme Court had now found in favour of the road and the county council expected to fulfil its plans.

In the past the council has pointed out that Dublin-bound commuter traffic is at a standstill in the Glen from 7.30 a.m. until after 9 a.m. each weekday. The route is one of national strategic importance linking Dublin city with the south-east and the port of Rosslare. It is on Euro-route One, a key European route, the Irish section of which is between Larne in Co Antrim and Rosslare, Co Wexford.

The National Roads Authority has said the cost of the work has risen from £18.5 million to £22 million since the protest began. The whole 10-year time frame, it says, is a text-book example of what has caused the much-mentioned infrastructural backlog. This problem is considered so seriously that a Cabinet sub-committee, chaired by the Taoiseach, is looking into it. A constitutional referendum, and a special division of the High Court to hear planning cases, are among the suggested solutions.

Meanwhile opponents to the Wicklow road-widening scheme say the Glen of the Downs is a nature reserve, a designated Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). If it is not protected from a road widening scheme, it should be, according to the activists. And if it is not protected, they ask, what is protected?

Others assert that the traffic jams are caused by commuters and observe that the council is proposing to improve the road at a time when Dublin city authorities are attempting to discourage car-commuting. They point to substantial housing developments in the pipeline for north Wicklow and ask how long it will be before the road reaches capacity again. And will another slice of the woodland then be taken?

They point out that the Dublin Transportation Initiative's preferred option is now public transport. There is an electrified rail link to Greystones which is almost complete and much of the traffic in the Glen in the mornings originates in the towns and villages of Kilcoole, Newcastle, Ashford, Rathnew, Wicklow, and as far south as Rathdrum: all of which are served by the rail line, Ashford being the furthest away from the rail link at two miles.

Clearly the case is an example of the delays involved in the planning system and a decision should have been made sooner but it also highlights an emphasis on road development to the near total exclusion of public transport.

The lesson is that in any traffic management plan public transport has to play a large part.

Opponents of the Glen road say it is not good enough for the council to argue that it does not build railways or operate public transport systems.

Perhaps if the road were seen in the context of a broader transport policy the expensive and wasteful delay ending in confrontation could have been avoided.