The huge investment in national roads will be written off within 10 years unless local authorities stop granting permission for major commercial schemes alongside new motorways, the chairman of An Bord Pleanála has warned.
At a briefing yesterday on the board's annual report for 2005, John O'Connor said "anyone driving around the country can see what is happening" with the construction of hotels, business parks and retail warehousing at motorway interchanges.
Such schemes were "piggy-backing" on new roads, with local traffic "weaving on and off over short distances" to get access and running into conflict with long-distance traffic. This affected the capacity of the roads as well as raising safety concerns.
Mr O'Connor said that there were also serious planning consequences for new national routes built in close proximity to towns. "If we're not careful, the town will gradually move to clog up the bypass, and we'll have to move the bypass again," he warned.
In what he termed a "wake-up call for local authorities", the board's chairman said: "If planning is about anything, it is about preventing these kinds of consequences - the potential massive waste of public resources and tearing the heart out of the town."
He cited the M50 as an "extreme example" of piggy-backing commercial development, but this was also happening in other places where there was "absolutely no reason" for it.
He said that such schemes would face a "high hurdle" in winning board approval.
Mr O'Connor noted that the National Roads Authority had recently recommended against this type of development - even though it might seem "superficially attractive" in terms of raising rates revenue - and said that the board would be taking heed of the NRA's view.
It has already refused planning permission for two road schemes which were designed to facilitate such developments - one at a junction on the M1, outside Dundalk, Co Louth, and the second at another M1 interchange at Courtlough, near Balbriggan, Co Dublin.
With An Bord Pleanála about to assume new responsibilities under the 2006 Strategic Infrastructure Act for dealing with motorways and other major pieces of infrastructure, Mr O'Connor said that schemes which harm the local environment "will not be approved".
Although national and EU policies would have to be taken into account, the board was "extremely anxious" that there would be full public participation in the decision-making process, and he pledged that oral hearings would be held in all such cases.
Mr O'Connor urged sponsors of major infrastructure projects to "engage with local communities on a frank and open basis" at an early stage. The board would also avail of pre-application discussions to "prevent poor projects being advanced".
He anticipated that 20 to 30 "strategic infrastructure" projects would be processed per year.
These would be handled by a new division of the board, adequately staffed by planning inspectors, to ensure that they were dealt with as expeditiously as possible.
The chairman conceded that the "huge workload" represented by a record number of planning appeals - likely to exceed 6,000 this year - meant that only 53 per cent are now being determined within the statutory period of 18 weeks, compared to 78 per cent in 2005. Appeals relating to larger housing schemes are continuing at a high level.
Expressing regret for ongoing delays, Mr O'Connor said that the board was "taking all possible measures to deal with the backlog and to get back as soon as possible to achieving its overall strategic objective to dispose of 90 per cent of cases within 18 weeks".