Plans for a controversial four-lane road through Sligo are now likely to be scrapped. Sligo Corporation has agreed to press the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, to provide urgent funding for a bypass and effectively abandon the proposed N4 inner relief road.
A sworn public inquiry into the building of the inner relief road was held in June after a total of 46 objections were lodged. Mr Dempsey has yet to give a ruling, as the report from the inquiry is still being drawn up.
However, a spokesman for the Minister said yesterday that Mr Dempsey could not insist that the inner relief road be constructed if Sligo Corporation opposed it. The Minister rules on the Compulsory Purchase Orders and says if the road can go ahead. "But his function is enabling rather than compelling," he added.
The spokesman said that if Sligo Corporation wanted funding for a bypass the local authority would have to discuss this with the National Roads Authority.
The controversial vote was taken at a meeting of Sligo Corporation on Monday night. A majority of the members of the previous council were in favour of the inner relief road, but since June's local elections proponents of this plan are now in a minority.
The special meeting was called to discuss a report, Sligo 2020: A Vision Strategy, drawn up by the Department of Regional and Urban Planning in UCD.
An interim report favours the early construction of a western bypass "together with a ruling out of both an eastern bypass and an inner relief route to facilitate the retention of a compact citycentre".
An inner relief road was first proposed about 20 years ago and has caused deep division in the town. A number of consultants' reports have been carried out and campaign groups are active on both sides of the debate. The proposed road would run through terraces and necessitates the demolition of about 40 houses, most of which have been vacated. The corporation has been buying properties along the route for more than 10 years.
Monday night's meeting of the corporation was equally divisive, with both Fine Gael and Fianna Fail split on the issue. The motion, endorsing the recommendations of the 2020 Vision in relation to the inner relief road and calling on Mr Dempsey to provide funding immediately for a bypass, was proposed by Mr Sean McManus, of Sinn Fein, and was carried by seven votes to four.