900 of our supporters made submissions to the North West Regional Assembly on the new Regional Spatial Strategies earlier this year. You may be aware from an email sent out by the NWRA that the second phase of submissions can now be sent to RSESMA@nwra.ie

The closing date for second phase submissions is October 11th. We have prepared a summary of the key points you may want to comment on and ask that you email the NWRA to make the following points;

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to rsesma@nwra.ie

In regard to the second draft of the Regional Spatial Economic Strategies I would like to make the following observation:

On page 233 of the new draft RSES, in regard to the current review of the closed railway it states ;

“If the review concludes that the corridor should be reopened, and if that is approved by Government, the project should be prioritised during this plan period.”

I ask that in addition to this statement that a qualifying statement be inserted on page 233 immediately after the above statement which reads ‘If the Rail Review of the closed railway from Athenry to Claremorris concludes that the rail corridor will not be reopened before 2025 and if that is approved by Government, then an alternative use of the closed railway; for example a greenway should be prioritised during this plan period, on the strict provision that the route will always be available for use as a railway at such time as this becomes possible’

I also welcome the addition of the new Regional Planning Objective to be included within the rail section of the report which states it will be an objective to:

“Support alternative appropriate uses of disused railway corridors, including as Greenways, where it does not prevent its future use for railway transport.”

I ask that this objective is included with no changes to the wording.

Thank you,

Your name and contact details etc

More details about the Directors report on the RSES can be found at www.nwra.ie