Former county manager Gerry Ward (third from left) with members of the Gallops & Woodlands Residents Association.
NAAS, 24 October: by Brian Byrne. The Exocet was the infamous missile to fear in the Falklands War. The Scud was the one worried about in the Gulf War ... though it ended up a bit of a damp squib. The Tomahawk cruise missile was the weapon of choice for the start of the Afghan War. Smart, stealthy and lethal.
Gerry Ward is the 'smart bomb' launched by residents of The Gallops and Woodlands in Naas who last night 'nuked' Kildare County Council's road planners. No better weapon, because being a former Kildare County Manager, there's nobody knows better just where its weaknesses are.
Or where his mission's strengths are.
So why would a former county manager drop his previous kingdom into the proverbial smelly stuff? Because it's being thick? Because it is wrong?
Maybe both. But mainly because it wants to run what he and his fellow residents believe is an obsolete road plan through their area.
He was blunt as a county manager. He's no less so now. He says a Part X procedure being carried out on the Gallops-Blessington Distributor Road by KCC is 'illegal'. Because at least one of the organisations which must be notified officially about it has not been. "And I haven't contacted them all yet."
He also accused KCC of 'subterfuge', by dealing with the planned ring road in segments. "I believe this is a device to forestall a multiplicity of objectors to the road as a whole," he told Naas UDC councillors at a special meeting last night, called to hear a presentation by the Gallops & Woodlands Residents Association. "And I have written to the Department of the Environment to tell them that this tactic is merely to avoid the need for an Environmental Impact Study."
Gerry Ward also said he 'couldn't understand' how a road could be designed 'without any reference to the kind of traffic it is expected to carry'. "There may be figures available, but we haven't seen them," he said.
He also bluntly rubbished a road engineer's report claiming that the proposed distributor road is 'not a national road'. "I dispute that. If it is going to take traffic coming in off the motorway at one end, and brings traffic to and from the Kilcullen Road, a national road, then it must itself be a national road."
The presentation by the Gallops & Woodlands Residents Association was strongly made and pithy in its conclusions about traffic problems which the road as proposed would create rather than relieve. Even non-engineers could see that this road plan is based on forecasts 'which may no longer be valid', given the way Naas has developed in the 20 years since it was first proposed. Speeding, gravel spillage, trucks, and a road that 'passes by a kitchen window' are all elements of their concerns.
The residents want the project halted until a full EIS has been carried out. And, given that Kildare County Council is next month beginning the process of developing an Integrated Framework Plan for Land Use and Transportation for the Naas Catchment Area, they also suggest that 'all major road proposals in Naas should be deferred until after this plan is completed'.
An Outer Ring Road is probably what Naas needs now.
And KCC road planners might think today they need a reinforced bunker, if this opening salvo in the 'Gallops Woodlands War' is anything to go by.
©2001brianbyrne/knn