Lucan 'road to nowhere' still closed in dispute over payment

A €10 million road built to relieve traffic congestion in west Dublin has remained closed since last year in a row over who should pay for it.

The road, which connects Lucan and Clonee through the new Laraghcon housing estate, has been dubbed locally as "the road to nowhere" since it was completed last November.

Shannon Homes, which built the distributor road as required under a planning permission for Laraghcon in 2001, is seeking €4 million in compensation from an adjoining landowner whose property, if developed, would be serviced by the new road. In the event of it not receiving what it regards as fair compensation, the company says it will take legal action against all parties, including Fingal County Council, to recoup a share of its investment.

Local independent councillor Derek Keating has called for the immediate opening of the road. "The people of Lucan are being held to ransom by this farcical situation. In place of a road, we have a road to nowhere."

Mr Keating, who campaigned against the rezoning and development of Laraghcon, said his worst fears about the development had come to pass. Lucan was a traffic "bottleneck", irreparable damage had been done to the Liffey Valley and still local drivers had to use the existing country lane leading to Clonee.

A representative of Shannon Homes said the road would not be opened before a proportion of the costs involved was recouped. She warned that the opening of the road was "not imminent".

Further questions were referred to a director of the company, Frank Fahy; however, he is out of the country until next month.

Fingal's director of transportation, Mick Lorigan, said Shannon Homes had offered to open the road under its control, but only if the council agreed to levy a proportion of the costs it had incurred on the owner of the neighbouring land.

Mr Lorigan, who says the council is not in a position to do this, has written to the company asking it to open the road immediately. He stressed this would not affect its right to pursue its claim for compensation in the courts.

The council was "completely frustrated" at the lack of activity on the issue, he said.

The property adjoining Shannon's land is zoned for housing but has not yet been developed.

Last year, a planning application in the name of Bigam Bush Ltd, of Dominick Street, Galway, was made for the demolition of Laraghcon House and the construction of 67 houses on this land. The council sought further information, but the application lapsed.

Bigam Bush, whose directors are Tom, Liam and Margaret Broderick, has since gone into liquidation. Tom Broderick could not be reached for comment.

Laraghcon was rezoned in 1993 against the advice of planning officials and in the teeth of opposition from residents of the area. Shannon Homes then bought the elevated 72-acre site.

An Bord Pleanála overturned an initial planning permission in 1999 but two years later it ap- proved plans for 282 houses.

The decision was made against the planning inspector's recommendation who dealt with the case.

One of the main conditions laid down by the board was that no work would start on any of the houses until the new road was completed.

Last year, however, when most of the housing was built, the road had still not been fully completed.

Asked yesterday why the council had not insisted on enforcing the original condition, Mr Lorigan said it did not always insist on infrastructure being in place in advance of the building of some houses. It recognised the need for developers to have a cash flow from the sale of houses.