CIE and Irish Rail challenge council move to give line protected status
Tuesday July 26 2005
If the railway line running to Foynes, near the Shannon estuary, was listed as a protected structure, CIE would have to apply for planning permission to do any upgrading work.
The train companies yesterday secured leave in the High Court to bring the challenge by way of judicial review.
Mr Justice John Quirke also granted a stay restraining the council from giving effect to the decision of April 25, 2005. The judge case will come before the court again on October 11.
In an affidavit, Michael Carroll, group solicitor for CIE, said that in a letter to the council dated March 4, 2005, the company submitted the proposed protected structure concerned an operational railway, which meant that if the line was listed any upgrade to it would require planning permission. The letter also noted that this would place an intolerable burden to maintaining a safe railway line and so there was a very good reason why such works had exempted status under the planning code, since even before 1963.
Mr Carroll, in his affidavit, also disputed the claim that the railway was "a unique piece of railway heritage".
- John Maddock
