Apologies this update is as long as it is, please do share it and get others to take action and let us know below the post if you have taken action. Thanks
There is a very important development taking place which everyone needs to be aware of. One of our layers of government and administration is the North West Regional Assembly. The North West Regional Assembly is a body made up of representatives from the County Councils of the region from Galway upto Donegal. A major part of their responsibilities every ten years is to come up with what is known as Regional Spatial Economic Strategies (RSES).
This is boring stuff folks, but really important. At the moment the draft RSES are up for review and you can have your say on them.
IT IS REALLY IMPORTANT YOU DO, AND IT IS VERY EASY TO DO. So bear with me.
Guess what folks!! The draft RSES are still going on about the railway which we all know will never happen, but the problem is if the RSES say the railway is still set in stone as an objective, our county councils will continue to insist this is the route we must go, despite the fact we know there is no money for the Western Rail Corridor. There are three objectives 113 and 115 (a) and 115 (b) that come straight from the horses mouth of Sean Canney and West on Track. Go read them if you want, but trust me you need to say something about them. 115 (a) and (b) are the ones we need to get changed!
So here is what you need to do folks.....And it is very simple, but you need to do it soon or you will miss your chance You have until February 8th to make a submission – seriously folks this is the forum West on Track will try and destroy our dreams of a greenway in, we need to make our voices heard.
The good folks at the Regional Assembly have made it easy for us, just click on the link here and make your own submission. If you want to be lazy you can cut copy paste this wording. It doesn’t matter if we all say the same thing but if we send in 10,000 submissions it becomes a news story, it grabs a headline and says IGNORE US IF YOU DARE.
Just copy paste this below and send it in. Simple really.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I am making a submission in relation to the RSES draft report. It is clear that Objectives 115 (a) and 115 (b) need to be removed as they clearly contravene the National Development plan. Both objectives 115 (a) and 115 (b) are presumptive of the outcome of the Western Rail Corridor Review of the closed railway line that is currently being undertaken by the DTTAS as part of the Ireland 2040 National Development Plan. It is not within the remit of the Regional Spatial Economic Strategies to assume the outcome of the rail review, objectives 115 (a) and objective 115 (b) contradict Ireland 2040 National Development Plan which only facilitates a Review of the line from Athenry to Claremorris and does not even include the line north of Claremorris.
Until this review is completed no assumptions can be made about the closed railway line ever being re-opened to make such a sweeping assumption in the RSES is contrary to the National Development Plan.
I therefore suggest that objective 115 be reworded so that it does not contravene the National Development plan to say something along these lines
Revision of objectives 115 (a) and 115 (b): If the outcome of the Western Rail Corridor Review from Athenry to Claremorris indicates that the closed railway is unlikely to be re-opened before 2030, then the closed railway shall be considered for alternative uses, for example such as a greenway, until such time as a railway might be possible, in order to protect the route in public ownership. Such alternative usage of the closed railway route would be under a strict licensed arrangement with Irish Rail that if needed for railway then railway will take precedence in the future.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
So copy paste, go to the link on RSES or email it to rses@nwra.ie
But please get it done before February 8th. Many thanks. Brendan