Decision on Eden road deferred again

The further delay in allowing the go ahead of the Edenderry to Enfield road upgrade means that the town is failing to be competitive when it comes to attracting business opportunities, councillors warned this week. A decision on the Compulsory Purchase Order for land on which to build the Edenderry to Enfield R402 road was deferred again by An Bord Pleanala until next month, despite local councillors expecting a decision on Wednesday. It"s the fourth month in a row that the decision has been postponed. 'We"re anxious to see approval being granted as soon as possible,' said Cllr Brian Carroll, chairman of Edenderry Town Council. 'The town council is going to put together a leaflet trying to sell Edenderry to encourage business to locate here. But the one thing that always knocked it down was the poor quality of the R402. It"s been going on so long now.' Cllr Carroll said there was no explanation for the repeat delays. 'The powers that be will decide when they want to, it"s very frustrating,' he added. According to An Bord Pleanala, the inspector is still carrying out the evaluation of the site and only when the inspector"s report is completed and referred to the Assistant Director for assessment, will it go before the board for a final decision. The new date set for a board hearing is March 10. The objection to the CPO on land for the building of the dual carriageway between Edenderry and Enfield has been before An Bord Pleanala since May 2008. Cllr John Quinlan said that there is no guarantee as to when the final decision will be made now that it has been delayed four times. 'It"s getting beyond the ridiculous now,' he said. The further delay was discussed at the monthly meeting of Edenderry Town Council on Wednesday night. Councillors expressed their concern that until a proper dual-carriageway was built to connect Edenderry to the M4, then the town would lose out on business, while commuters were continuing to use a dangerous road. The go ahead for the road upgrade was given four years ago and only last week the NRA confirmed that an allocation of €5 million was ringfenced to purchase the land needed for the project.