Archive for July, 2008
Meath County Council have now officially admitted that they have failed to meet the 18 July deadline to produce a noise action plan for Julianstown. This is despite issuing a statement to the press that they were not in breach of any regulations and would be meeting their commitments on time.
Although the council has statutory responsibility for production of the plan, the local authority is blaming the EPA for not delivering vital information to them in time. The latest news is that it will be expediting its way from Dublin up to Navan by Wednesday 29 July.
The council is truly lacking in credibility here. Dublin has already put its plan on display and opened a public consultation. Their noise maps have also been on the web for quite some time.
See here.
Concern has to be expressed at the attention this is being given within Meath County Council given the serious public health issues that the noise study raises.
See out noise page for more info.
July 26th, 2008
From the Irish Times, news that the Cashel to Mitchelstown road has opened and will cater for 9,500 vehicles. Lot’s of smiling FF types on hand. Can somebody pass on the message that there are 22,000 vehicles per day in Julianstown.
MOTORISTS CAN look forward to a 30-minute cut in journey time between Cork and Dublin after the opening yesterday of the N8 Cashel-Mitchelstown dual carriageway.
The new route will bypass four villages and towns - New Inn and Skeheenarinky villages in Co Tipperary, Kilbehenny in Co Limerick, and it incorporates a bypass of Cahir town on the N24.
The dual carriageway was officially opened yesterday by Martin Mansergh, Minister of State for Finance and South Tipperary TD.
“This road, which runs through the heart of south Tipperary, will be a major benefit to the people and the economy of adjoining towns in terms of jobs and investment, and indeed will make the whole county more accessible,” Mr Mansergh said.
“By delivering this scheme, which includes a bypass of Cahir, ahead of time and on budget, Government is achieving three important targets - removing through traffic, improving access to and from towns and villages in the area and, most importantly, improving road safety.”
The 41km dual carriageway will remove up to 9,500 vehicles daily from the four bypassed towns and villages. Travelling times and congestion will be reduced, positively affecting both commercial and tourism sectors.
July 26th, 2008
A couple of press reports.
http://www.julianstown.com/files/Archive/2000/2008/080723_press.pdf
The NRA press release from June 2003 that said that the M1 would take 15000 vehicles per day out of Julianstown and would bypass the village. The reality turned out to be quite different.
http://www.julianstown.com/files/Archive/2000/2003/030609_NRA_PressRelease.pdf
July 26th, 2008
Report in the Irish Times 15 July 2008
Odd that there has been a “Sold” sign on it for months. This article seems to imply that the property has not sold, that the bank is looking for money and that the insurance aren’t paying up.
At least the ownership is not in doubt, but it is likely to be left derelict until the whole mess is cleared up.
Hoteliers ordered to repay €2M loan
A BANK has secured a court order requiring two men to repay loans of some €2 million secured on the Old Mill Hotel in Julianstown in Co Meath, which was later destroyed by fire.
However, Mr Justice Peter Kelly agreed to put a stay on registration and execution of the order for judgment against Michael Durkin, of Cois Inbhir, Donabate, Co Dublin, and John Lynch, of Kalyn House, Beaulieu, Drogheda, Co Louth, until October next to allow for the sale of the property.
He said he would consider a further stay from October depending on the progress of separate proceedings in which Mr Durkin and Mr Lynch are challenging the repudiation of policies of insurance for the premises.
Patrick Leonard, for Bank of Ireland, indicated the bank would consent to a stay for purposes of selling the lands on which the hotel was located. The bank claimed it had advanced loans to the defendants in 2004 to allow them refinance existing borrowings related to the hotel, to fund renovations and to buy out the interest of their co-owners.
The bank claimed the defendants had defaulted on loan repayments from February 2006 and that a material change had occurred in that the hotel, which secured the loan, had been destroyed by fire, was no longer in business and the insurers were refusing to indemnify.
The bank sought repayment of the loans in April last but repayment had not been made, it said.
Counsel for the defendants said the premises had been insured for €1.4 million.
July 16th, 2008
Nice article in Drogheda Indo.
Couple sue Luas over Noise.
July 16th, 2008
The deadline for Meath County Council to produce a noise action plan to reduce and eliminate the harmful effects of environmental noise is due on Friday 18 July 2008. The action plan is a legal obligation on the council under 2006 noise legislation which implemented a 2002 EU Directive in the area. The council is obliged to engage in public consultation in advance of producing its plan.
We wrote to the council looking for an update on progress and inquiring about where the information could be publicly accessed. They wrote back to say that they did not know when the action plan would commence and that it was due to be discussed at the full council meeting on Monday July 7th. They didn’t answer the question regarding where the information was to be found.
The council is obliged to make the information publicly available, and Dublin City Council has done so in its website as have various bodies throughout Europe (the England site is particularly good). Meath County Council is special. We wrote straight back to them, copying all councilors on July 7 by email and asked where the information can be found and we have still not got a reply.
Just to put it in perspective we have seen a noise map for Julianstown and the noise is in excess of 75dB L_den (a measure of 24 noise, weighted towards more impact in the evening and night). At a a level of 69dB Dublin Airport Authority is offering to buy out peoples homes before the construction of the new runway at Dublin Airport, because the noise would be unacceptable. The noise in Julianstown is 4 times more intense than this threshold.
In the mean time we issued this press release on July 9.
We also made the Julianstown Noise page to put what we know in the public domain.
We are asking the council to take their responsibilities seriously and to expedite the production of the plan, prioritizing Julianstown for serious action. We will make complaints to the EPA or the European if necessary.
July 13th, 2008
