Surprise email leads to accusations of 'cloak and dagger' policy

Representatives from Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) and Mayo County Council are being summonsed to attend the June meeting of Westport-Belmullet Municipal District to account for how a surprise email was sent to local councillors late on Friday afternoon, May 22, announcing that a controversial greenway extension between Murrisk and Belclare has been referred to An Coimisiún Pleanála, bypassing any input from councillors.

Cllr Brendan Mulroy told last Monday’s meeting of the forum that he was “very surprised” to receive the email at 3.30pm on Friday when there was “nothing we could do or nobody to contact”. He described it as “very much cloak and dagger” and called for TII and the council “to come in and explain how the decision was made, because doing it under the table like this is not transparent".

“If they don’t turn up at the next meeting and explain how this decision was reached it will show a complete lack of respect. Everyone deserves to know how this happened. We have been left waiting a year and a half for a decision to be made on the route and now we know that nothing was being done in the background and there was no engagement with landowners. People need clarity. A five-line email is not good enough.” 

Cllr John O’Malley said the email had been sent out from a council administrator so there was no official that councillors could even reply to. 

“We don’t know who it came from or who gave the orders and it was all done behind closed doors. It should be explained how they arrived at that decision and what is the position from now as a lot of landowners are concerned.” 

Cllr Chris Maxwell said everyone wants a greenway around Clew Bay but nobody wants to see landowners being divided, adding: “That happened in Kerry and the County Council there is doing substantial work to try and repair the damage done."

Cllr Maxwell described the greenway extension in West Mayo as "a fiasco" and blamed TII for causing it. 

Cathaoirleach Cllr Peter said the email came “like a bolt from the blue” and was “very unsatisfactory”, adding: “Communication on this has been really poor from the start. We need to get better at this and get closer to people so that landowners and stakeholders know what’s happening. We should have had our senior people here today from the Roads Design Office to give us an overview but there is nobody to explain this."

Cllr Flynn proposed that the issue be "the first item" on the agenda for next month's meeting and also asked that online access be facilitated for the public so they "can hear why the decision has been moved away from us". 

"The reality is it is now gone to An Coimisiún Pleanála and will be managed by TII. Ultimately, it has moved to another province, quite literally.” 

• Published as part of the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.