Lombard Calls For Road Plans Before Any More Development – Carrigaline

An aerial shot of the south side of Carrigaline clearly showing that if any further residential development takes place on the south side of Carrigaline, there will be virtually no space for a southern relief road before coming into hilly land. For the purposes of illustration, The Carrigdhoun have placed a red-line roughly along the original proposed southern relief road and a yellow line as an alternative route, given that housing estates are now in the way of the original proposed route. Both lines link roughly to where an Outer Western Relief Road would be built. The blue X’s show fields where residential development could potentially take place if zoned, again potentially obstructing a relief road. Photo: Adrian O’Herlihy

Lombard Calls For Road Plans Before Any More Development – Carrigaline Writes Jack White

Cllr Aidan Lombard has called for a strategic plan to deal with the current infrastructural deficits in Carrigaline as well as the potential infrastructural deficits and traffic chaos that will arise if further zoning is given the go ahead in the Green-Belt area on the southern side of Carrigaline. At the recent Local Area Plan meeting of Cork County Council it was decided that the Green-Belt on the south side of Carrigaline will be zoned for housing. While the move to zone more land will, in time, fill some of the demand for housing in Carrigaline, Cllr Lombard strongly believes provision needs to be made by planners to zone for a southern relief road that could potentially link to the proposed Outer Western Relief Road before any more residential zoning is approved. He is hopeful, that before the final decision in July, planners will see sense. As it stands, for motorists wishing to pass through Carrigaline coming from the wider Crosshaven area or coming from the southern half of Carrigaline, the alternatives are limited, causing huge traffic delays at peak times throughout the day. Cllr Lombard says, “At every stage of the process I have highlighted my opposition to any zoning of the green belt without a strategic plan to deal with the infrastructural problems we have in Carrigaline”. He continues, “Within the existing boundary we have enough land zoned to build 600/700 houses on the south side of Carrigaline and I do not understand the logic of extending the boundary without a clearly defined plan to deal with the traffic issue that we have in Carrigaline. This will be an extra 1200 cars that cannot get through the village as it stands without any extension of the development boundary. I simply am asking for defined routes to be mapped so we do not make the mistakes of the past, where we built housing estate after housing estate without a master plan.” Highlighting the appalling lack of planning to date by Cork County Council, Cllr Lombard says, “At present the proposed Southern Relief Road, (through Forest Hill and Castle Heights), and the proposed Outer Western Relief road do not join, because a housing estate is in the way. The policy of building estates without a very clear infrastructural plan has to stop and I, for one, will do all I can to correct this failed policy of Cork County Council”. Offering a solution, Cllr Lombard states; “My proposal was to have the infrastructural issues within Carrigaline addressed first. This was not accepted and instead, text has been added to say it will be looked into during the lifetime of the plan. I do not accept this and believe we are repeating the mistakes of the past and I am disappointed if this is what we consider to be good planning”. “The proposal as it stands is to break the boundary on the south side and rezone part of the green belt for a relatively small amount of land but it is the principle of zoning without correcting the infrastructural deficit and the precedent that we set by breaking the boundary that concerns me”, says Aidan. He continues, “While I am acutely aware of the current housing crisis I do not believe housing for the sake of housing should become our objective. The plan proposed by the Council will be put out for public consultation in the coming weeks and I will be opposing any breaking of the boundary and rezoning of the Green Belt, as I have done throughout the process, until we have a clearly defined infrastructural plan for Carrigaline”.