Leitrim and Sligo County Council need to engage much closer with farmers and landowners on Greenway

The IFA outlined the very serious concerns of farmers regarding the proposed Sligo, Leitrim, Northern Counties, Railway Greenway at a meeting with senior officials from Leitrim County Councils and the ARUP Project Consultants in Carrick on Shannon last week.

The IFA had sought the meeting with the Council on the Greenway following a public IFA meeting attended by over 100 farmers and landowners in Manorhamilton in early July.

In a joint statement, the Chair of Leitrim IFA Liam Gilligan and Sligo IFA Michael O’ Dowd said IFA had a good and frank meeting with the Council and outlined all of the issues that emerged from the Manorhamilton meeting.

“IFA made it very clear that Leitrim and Sligo County Council along with ARUP need to engage much closer with farmers and landowners both on an individual and collective basis and to take on board and address their concerns and issues in the future design of the Greenway.”

“The impact of the proposed Greenway on private farm lands and farming enterprises is very severe. Greenway projects like the SLNCR should maximise the use of public lands and minimise the impact on private lands, in line with the Government Strategy for the Future Development of Greenways and the Greenways Code of Best Practice.” 

“This is clearly not the case with the proposed Sligo/Leitrim Greenway as the vast majority of the lands on the emerging proposed route are not public or state-owned lands and are in fact farmland. This is unacceptable and extremely challenging for the landowners.”

The Leitrim and Sligo IFA County Chairs also made it very clear to the project promoters that IFA is opposed to any severance of farms or compulsory purchase orders (CPOs) for amenity projects like Greenways. 

“The project promoters said that the emerging preferred route corridor for the Greenway will predominantly be on private lands. IFA highlighted that this will have the potential to sever and divide a large number of the farms. This is totally unacceptable.  Severance and division of farms will not work and must be reviewed by the Councils and consultants”. 

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The Council have proposed that the Greenway would follow the old railway route. However, the IFA pointed out in practice farmers now farm and use most of the land where the abandoned railway line was. The reality is this is no longer a rail line and is now part of active farms and may include houses and farmyards.  

“The old abandoned railway line is long gone and this land is now active farmland, making it unsuitable for a Greenway.”

Other key issues raised by the IFA included the impact of the Greenway in respect of farm viability, severance, access issues, privacy, safety and security, anti-social behaviour, dogs, litter, animal disease and wildlife, and environmental and other issues. 

There was also a request that the Independent Consultant Breian Carroll be made more available to individual farmers and landowners to try and address their concerns and problems. At the meeting in Manorhamilton it was highlighted that most landowners were not aware that he was available.

The Manorhamilton meeting also heard that farmers and landowners are not convinced of the possible economic benefits of the Greenway to the community and there was a need for an independent economic analysis highlighting on this.

The IFA encouraged all farmers along the proposed emerging route of the old railway to check out the ownership situation and if they need to register their ownership, they should take steps to do so. As part of the Code of Practice for Greenways, project promoters can contribute a sum of €750 plus Vat towards the vouched legal fees incurred by farmers in regularising their title to the standard required.

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Liam Gilligan said the meeting provided another good opportunity for the IFA to outline to Leitrim County Council and ARUP the real concerns of farmers regarding the proposed Greenway.