A PROPOSAL to suspend plans for a €130 million sewerage system upgrade in the vicinity of Killiney Bay is to be made at tonight's meeting of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council.
The council has been planning to upgrade the Shanganagh waste water treatment plant since 2001, and recently claimed deficiencies at the plant were partly responsible for the loss of Killiney beach's Blue Flag. The ambitious scheme would include the upgrading of the plant as well as the building of a transfer pipeline between Shanganagh and Bray in Co Wicklow, where there would also be an underground reinforced concrete storm water storage tank.
The council said the project would ensure discharged water complied with national and European standards and would improve the quality of the area's beaches.
But locals in the Shankill area, through which the proposed pipeline would be built, have objected, claiming the selected route for the construction traffic would represent a health and safety hazard.
Objectors also argue that the original environmental impact assessment, carried out by the council in 2001, considered only the upgrade of the treatment works and failed to include the pipeline, the storm holding tank at Bray and the traffic elements of the plan.
Fine Gael councillor John Bailey is to table a special motion which, if supported by his colleagues, would force county manager Owen Keegan to put the project on hold.
A similar motion tabled by Mr Bailey last November was defeated after council management argued that it would delay the improvement scheme considerably.
Shankill resident Eamonn Keogh said locals wanted the project put on hold until a "proper" environmental assessment was carried out.
