Fine Gael Senator Jerry Buttimer said residents of suburbs such as Douglas, Rochestown and Grange were not opposed to the M28 motorway but rather the route chosen by Cork County Council. Photograph: Eric Luke/The Irish Times.

Fine Gael Senator Jerry Buttimer said residents of suburbs such as Douglas, Rochestown and Grange were not opposed to the M28 motorway but rather the route chosen by Cork County Council. Photograph: Eric Luke/The Irish Times.

 

Cork residents opposed to the proposed M28 motorway between the city and Ringaskiddy had reasonable concerns unlike those opposed to an Apple data centre in Co Galway, a planning hearing has heard.

Fine Gael Senator Jerry Buttimer said residents of suburbs such as DouglasRochestown and Grange were not opposed to the motorway but rather the route chosen by Cork County Council and Transport Infrastructure Ireland.

“I’ve heard some people say that the objectors are like the Apple objectors but we are not like the Apple objectors – the people who have come here today are not serial objectors but come here because of serious and legitimate concerns they have about the selected route,” he told the hearing, which was attended by up to 200 people.

Residents from Douglas, Maryborough, Rochestown, Shanbally and Ringaskiddy have objected to the proposed N28 route, saying that it will have a serious impact on their quality of life through increased noise pollution as well as devaluing their properties.

Mr Buttimer said affected residents recognised the economic benefit it would bring to the entire Cork region. However, he said Rochestown and Douglas were already suffering from heavy traffic congestion at peak times and the proposed route involving the upgrading of the existing N28 to a motorway would not alleviate this problem. The project would only add to noise pollution which is already above EU limits, he said.

Former Green Party TD Dan Boyle said upgrading the N28 represented a further imbalance between investment in road infrastructure and public transport which had been weighted towards the former in Cork over the past 40 years.

Mr Boyle pointed out that despite visionary plans such as the Land Use Transportation Study (LUTS) in 1978 and the Cork Area Strategic Plan(CASP) in 2001, there had been little investment in public transport with the re-opening of the Midleton rail line being the only such investment.