A decision by An Bord Pleanβla on controversial proposals to place toll plazas near Drogheda and Gormanstown on the new M1 Drogheda bypass motorway is due in February, a Bord Pleanβla inspector, Mr John Colleran, told a hearing yesterday.
On the second and final day of the hearing on the proposals in Dundalk yesterday, local senator Mr Fergus O'Dowd (FG) said the proposal was "a travesty of justice for the people of Drogheda".
He said locals who wished to use the new Boyne Bridge to get from one side of the town to the other would have to pay a toll.
A toll plaza near the Border would be more equitable as those travelling between Belfast and Dublin would derive most of the benefits from the new motorway, he said.
The siting of a toll plaza at the Donore Road intersection near Drogheda amounted to an economic tariff on the town and its people and was "ill-conceived and unnecessary", Mr Peter Monaghan of Drogheda Chamber of Trade told the hearing.
The toll would hinder rather than ease traffic congestion in the town, especially to and from the port as people would continue to use the existing N1 to avoid paying a toll, he said. Consultant Mr Peter Fox, who had helped prepare the Environmental Impact Study on the tolls, rejected the arguments, saying the town would benefit from the motorway.
Barrister Mr Paul Butler, for Meath County Council which is overseeing the motorway project, told the hearing there had been no objections from the Drogheda Port Authority. He urged the approval of the scheme as such public-private partnerships were seen in the National Development Plan as a major factor in improving the roads infrastructure.