THE High Court has ordered a Co Kildare couple not to carry out a threat to barricade the M9 Kilcullen-link motorway on Tuesday.
Mr Justice Moriarty was told yesterday that Mr Tom Doyle, of Clanaboy, Oldtown, Athgarvan, and his wife, Elaine, had written to Kildare County Council informing the county manager they would erect barriers on the motorway at noon on April 8th.
The four-mile carriageway links the Naas-Kildare motorway to the Kilcullen-Athy and Kilcullen-Carlow roads. The Doyles claim their lands, over which the M9 was built, have never been dedicated for public use.
Mr John Aylmer, counsel for the local authority, told the court the Doyles claimed the Minister for the Environment's decision to declare the motorway open on October 24th, 1994, was invalid because the lands over which it passed were still in their ownership.
He said that in a letter to the council on February 18th last, the Doyles claimed to have been imprisoned in their home and had to suffer the indignity, inconvenience and hardship of having no driveway after its removal by Kildare County Council in 1991.
Mr Aylmer said the Doyles had on certain days in February and March removed part of the motoraway fence between their home and the motorway and had started excavation works to open a driveway onto the M9 against the flow of traffic.
He said this could have fatal consequences, particularly at night. The council had fixed the fence each time but the Doyles had continued to reopen it.
Mr Peter Thorne, project manager for the M9 scheme, said in an affidavit the fencing had been primarily erected to prevent animals straying onto the motorway.
Mr Aylmer said the Doyles had failed in a High Court challenge to the legality of the motorway across their lands and in seeking an injunction to close it. The High Court's decision had been appealed to the Supreme Court.
He said the council contended that Notice of Intention to enter the Doyles' lands was properly served in May, 1990. Title to the land on which the M9 had been built would appear to be still vested in the names of Mr and Mrs Doyle who had been awarded £106,000 compensation at arbitration for the necessary lands.
Mr Aylmer said the money had not been paid over yet by the council due to a charge on the Doyles' lands by the Agricultural Credit Corporation.
This money, he said, was not being paid out pending the determination by the Supreme Court of the appeal and an undertaking shad been made to the High Court to retain the money.
Mr Justice Moriarty said the course the Doyles proposed to take would create a public hazard and, if implemented, could create a situation one would not wish to contemplate.
He restrained the Doyles from erecting barricades on the motorway, opening any access from their lands onto it, or interfering with, damaging or removing fencing or carrying out further excavation of the embankment.