A coalition of residents' associations opposed to the routing of the proposed by-pass of Bundoran and Ballyshannon, is considering running a candidate for the Dail in Donegal South West.
A single issue candidate in the last general election, Deputy Thomas Gildea, won a seat in the three-seat constituency, on an anti-MMDS ticket and is one of four Independents, keeping the current coalition parties in government.
Members of Combined Residents against Super Highway (CRASH) made the announcement in response, they claim, to their disappointment at the absence of public representatives at the by-pass oral hearing.
The by-pass will cut through a 35-metre "corridor" between two housing estates and affect other houses in the vicinity of a new bridge to cross the River Erne. A spokesman for the group claimed their rights were being completely ignored by the National Roads Authority, the consultants to the project and Donegal County Council. "Public representatives should be seen to act on behalf of the people that elected them, rather than supporting Donegal County Council," he said.
The hearing by An Bord Pleanala of the proposed N15 by-pass reconvened yesterday with Mr Michael O'Donnell BL, for the residents, asking why there was no "independent" noise consultant at the hearing, other than the project director, Mr Robert Cairnduff of Babtie Pettit Consultants.
Noise levels were one of the fundamental objections of the residents of Assaroe View and St Benildus Ave, he said.
Mr O'Donnell claimed there was not a "single concrete proposal" in the environmental impact report on noise mitigation. Such references were essentially an "aspiration" and, therefore, no comfort to the residents concerned, he said.
The hearing continues.