Councillors vote for Shell road

mayo | environment | news report Tuesday March 11, 2008 18:10 by Rudiger

A rundown of a Mayo County Council where councillors voted to help Shell build their proposed experimental pipeline.

Here's where the road ends

At a Mayo County Council (MCC) meeting yesterday, councillors voted against the wishes of a considerable number of the local residents of the area to allow the council to expand a road specifically for the use of Shell.
The motion was carried by 17 votes to 3, which will allow the council to accept €3m from Shell, Statoil & Marathon to widen and strengthen a road from the refinery gates directly to the proposed landfall site.

The first to jump to his feet in support of the motion was Cllr Johnny Mee (Labour) who spoke of the need to facilitate the job creation in Mayo and the road should go ahead in the quickest possible time. He stated that “it must be hard on the industrialists” given all the objections that seem to be going in about everything. He proposed the motion that the road be given council permission.

MCC Director of Services Peter Hynes then gave a brief rundown on the divide of the 32 submissions (involving over 140 people) that had been received regarding the road expansion. He stated that 3 of the submissions were for the road, and of the remaining submissions, half were over individual property concerns and the other half were environmental or safety concerns. It should be noted that among the submissions was one that was signed by 111 people from the area, which raised questions on the purpose, lack of consultation, safety and environmental impact of the road. Mr Hynes stated that NPWS and the Fisheries Board had addressed the environmental issues raised, while the individual property concerns could be dealt with as the project was going on. He also stated that this road was not “absolutely essential” to the Corrib Gas project and that it could go ahead without the road upgrade. He stated that it was the council who convinced Shell to do the road expansion, as the council felt it would be preferable to upgrade the road rather than fix the road

The next councillor to speak was Cllr McGuinness (FG) who seconded Cllr Mees’ proposal “with gusto”. In one of the most maddening of the speeches made, he spoke about how SEPIL (Shell Ireland) had initially handled the whole process badly by abusing people, trespassing on land and putting people into jail. However he said that we were a Christian society and that as the “perpetrators” had said they were wrong and that we should accept they’re act of contrition as these things were in the past. He also stated that the Corrib Partners were now putting right these past wrongs.

Next to speak was Cllr Gerry Coyle (FG) from Belmullet, who spoke broadly in favour of the road but wanted it extended as far as Barr na Tra as at present “the road is totally for Shell”. He also stated that the pipeline or landfall facility hadn’t got planning and so the road was pre-emptive. However he still subsequently voted for the road expansion. Three other councillors (including Cllrs McNamara & Holmes) spoke in favour of the road.

In the only clear speech against the motion Cllr Gerry Murray (SF) stated that he thought it very strange indeed to see “the Norwegian government funding roads in North West Mayo”. He also stated that in order for Local Agenda 21 to be fully complied with proper consultation with the local people of the area should happen. He said that while the people of Erris are pro-gas and pro-development, that the Shell spin is incorrectly characterising the concerns of the local people. He also stated that An Bord Pleanala Senior Planning Inspector Kevin Moore who nobody could claim is anti-development had initially found against the proposed Corrib Gas project. However it was only with the intervention of Bertie Ahern into the resubmitted planning application that had got the project passed. Cllr Murry then called for the deal to be renegotiated stating that while the “Norwegian government are stakeholders, our government are servant boys”.

Cllr Tim Quinn (FF) from Belmullet also spoke and stated that the number of submissions amazed him. He then put forward a motion to have the council delay its decision for a month in order for more consultation to be held with the local community as an act of good will and compromise. Cllr Chambers (FF) also spoke in favour of Cllr Quinns’ motion saying that he didn’t think it was unfair to give another 4 weeks for consultation.

On this point Peter Hynes stated that he didn’t think a month postponement would make any difference. He also said that his “understanding was that it [the funding for the road] might not be there” if there was a months delay, and that the delay could put the road project at risk. Mr Hynes also stated that he was offended with the assertion in some of the submissions that MCC would damage the environment and castigated what he called the “self appointed gurus” for their interference.

The vote then took place and was easily passed with only Cllrs Quinn, Murray and Chambers voting against.

Speaking after the meeting, local hostel owner Betty Schult stated that she "resented the previously public road being basically handed over to Shell for they're personal use and using council workers as Shell subcontractors"

Just a number of observations that I have is that even though now Mayo County Council have stated that the funding for the road is coming from Shell & Co initially this was not clear. The source of the funding was not stated in any of MCC’s initial planning applications and the first place this was stated that I am aware of, is in Shell’s response to some of the submissions. In response to one of the submissions MCC state “the regulations do not require the notice to state the source of the funding for a project”. To me it seems that if Mayo County Council were even slightly genuine in their claim to be interested in community consultation they would be more forthcoming to a community which already has immense distrust for them. It also begs the questions what other State agencies have financial dealings with Shell and what are they.
Peter Hynes also stated that they have been discussing the road expansion for nearly 12 months with Shell now. Seeing that the pipeline options were only publicly revealed in June 07 this means that council were discussing a road upgrade for a pipeline that not only hadn’t gone through planning permission but also the various options hadn’t been revealed to the public. Now not all the revealed pipeline options in June went through Glengad so were those other options just put in for the hell of it?
MCC also stated with regard to this application that they have “complied fully with the Aarhus Convention”. However this is patently untrue, as they have not engaged in any dialogue with concerned people regarding this road. Last Friday a meeting took place between Pat Commons, MCCs Local Agenda 21 officer and a small number of locals however this meeting discussed what his role was rather than any aspect of the road. A further meeting was sought by the locals to discuss the road however will not happen until April sometime.

Although it won’t be displayed in any glossy Shell literature or probably even media, it should be noted that last week over 100 people were let go from the Bellanaboy site. It seems that since Shell had their PR blitz about 2 weeks ago we are now into the decline phase of employment of Bellanaboy. Also according to a local councilor who made enquires, of the 25 long-term technical staff that are currently being trained only 2 are from the Erris region.
At the Shell operated Bacton gas refinery in Norfolk, England during a recent gas explosion the 46 workers were thankfully safely evacuated. This is one of the largest gas refineries in the UK and still only 46 workers on the refinery at the time of the explosion. Already around 35 jobs are going to be moved from the Bellanaboy area because of the refinery so the idea that Bellanaboy is going to provide loads of long-term jobs is false. And what is the cost of these few jobs!!!!!