Julianstown

Meath TD Points to M1 Toll Disaster

Meath TD FG Shane McEntee pointed to Julianstown in a call not to toll the M3 Navan motorway. In an article in the September 17th edition of the Meath Chronicle he pointed to the crazy situation in Julianstown. Read the excerpt:

Meanwhile, Meath East FG TD, Shane McEntee, has demanded an urgent review of the proposal to toll the new M3 motorway.

The Drogheda bypass and its toll bridge was an example of tolling not being the right way forward in Ireland, said Deputy McEntee. "The reality of tolling the Drogheda bypass is that it has forced thousands of cars and heavy trucks onto the roads of Drogheda, Julianstown and Slane,"” he said.

Julianstown, which runs alongside the M1 motorway, now caters for traffic volumes in excess of 20,000 vehicles per day, 1,500 of which are heavy goods vehicles. A significant percentage of those vehicles using Slane and Julianstown are choosing to avoid the tolls on the M1 motorway, he added.

He predicted that when the M3 is completed, cars and, more particularly, heavy goods vehicles in an attempt to avoid tolls would use the already over-stretched roads through towns like Dunboyne, Ratoath and Dunshaughlin.

There was also an interesting insight into how local authorities must fund their infrastructure in the same article. Basically central government will only pay 50% max for the rail link from Navan to Dublin, the council has to raise the rest by rezoning and taking a levy from new houses built on the land. This model was used in Midleton county Cork where there was massive rezoning in small villages to fund a rail link to Cork city.

So in other words landowners get rich from rezoning, the government ends up recouping its share from stamp duty and VAT on new houses and the price of the houses is increased due to the levy which no doubt is passed on to the purchasers. In otherwords ordinary people pay for the full costs through indirect taxation. The Council meanwhile still has to provide the services to the land and pay for 1/2 of the transport link, thus robbing it of the funds to provide essential services elsewhere in the county.

This is quite startling.

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posted by FPL @ 9:01 AM