Locals in two Co Westmeath villages near Athlone are pondering what some consider a bizarre row over the removal of an "imaginary" line for a bypass.
The matter arose during the Athlone area committee's discussion last week of the new Westmeath county development plan. Glasson and Ballykieran are located on the N55, a national secondary road, just north of Athlone, and suffer, like many other Irish towns, from serious traffic problems.
An aspirational line was placed on the map for a bypass of the villages back in the late 1980s, but no move has been made to build it.
However, a considerable amount of land around the small village of Glasson has been earmarked for new housing in the development plan, a move to limit "ribbon" development and enlarge village clusters. Some of those lands are in the path of the bypass line.
Consequently, it was proposed that the imaginary bypass line be removed. Having initially supported the plan, Fianna Fail members opposed it at the meeting. A compromise was reached whereby the line will remain on the map for two years. If the proposed bypass is not being built then, the line will be removed. Building a bypass would involve compulsory purchase orders on the lands.
Glasson resident Mr Felim Finnegan says the route for the bypass was selected in the 1980s on "economic grounds", i.e. it was the cheapest route for the new road. "It has been untouched and unloved for 14 years," he said.
"We always felt the line was in the wrong place, but everyone danced merrily along on the basis that it would never be built."
Some landowners whose land the line crosses have paid for an independent report on the proposed bypass. On the basis of the results residents have started a petition to remove the line and have made a submission on the new county development plan. Mr Finnegan describes it as "an 11th hour" submission, but says the Glasson opposition group believed it was "pushing an open door" to get the line removed.
However, he insists the residents oppose the line on the grounds of the bypass's potential damage to the amenity of the area, rather than on the grounds that they might face compulsory land purchase down the line.
According to the residents' submission, the road line designed in 1988 to bypass Glasson is "totally unsuited to today's requirements, arising from the long-term projection of Athlone as a major national growth centre and conurbation".
It said the road would also cut Glasson off from the lakeside amenity area, including the canal link to Lough Ree, the millennium forest and angling centre proposed in the plan for Portlick, Glasson golf course and its surrounding scenery.
A "less harmful" route for the N55 bypass would be a line from Tinker's Cross to a point north of Tubberclair, the submission suggests.
The residents asked Westmeath County Council to abandon the existing bypass plan on the grounds that it does not meet the needs of the area now. They also requested that the route be designed around the proposed village expansion areas so as not to restrict their development potential, or have any adverse environmental impact on the expanded villages.
In the submission the Glasson group broadly welcomes other provisions in the development plan, including the proposal to accommodate the growth of Glasson and Ballykieran as "important settlement and service centres". They also welcome a planned link between Glasson and the inner lakes, believed to refer to a canal link to Lough Ree.
The residents believed that they had the full support of all members of the Athlone area committee in backing the change to the bypass route, Mr Finnegan says.
However, the five Fianna Fail members opposed the removal of the line and a "compromise" deal was reached which will leave it in place for a further two years.
A Fine Gael member, Mr Mark Cooney, one of the two Fine Gael members on the seven-member committee to vote for the removal of the line, said the compromise was simply a "fudge".
The local community is not quite sure what to make of the vote and there were suggestions last week that the area may now "split" over the bypass route.
The Glasson petition group has also lobbied the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, the TD for the area, on altering the development plan to remove the bypass.
Westmeath councillors have held meetings of the local area committees to consider the plan. However, a further delay is expected before the plan is finally adopted as policy, since the Mullingar committee has not yet approved its section of the plan.
Westmeath County Council spokespersons were not available for comment on the matter.