A west Wicklow farming family has been left in limbo, as the upgrading of the N81 road has left them with no option to sell, build, expand or borrow.

Ben Hamilton and his father, Andy, farm dairy and beef on approximately 200 acres in four locations at Hempstown, The Lambe, Cross Cool Harbour and Slate Quarry, lands bordering the N81 road. The family has been farming in the area for six generations.

‘‘Can’t’’ is the most common word in the Hamilton dictionary these days. The Hamilton lands border the N81, a single lane route from Tallaght to Baltinglass with its fair share of motor incidents and fatalities.

“Almost 10 years ago, the work commenced on the upgrade of the N81,” said a frustrated Andy Hamilton.

“Plans went out to public consultation, were revised and on display again, until finally, a preferred route was agreed and in many places, almost 300m of our land effectively frozen to make way for the proposed route.’’

Lack of progress

“Almost 50 acres of our land is affected by ongoing lack of progress on the N81. The recent announcement by Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) and Minster Ross that the upgrade is to be deferred until 2027 – nine years away – is killing us here.

“Sharon and I raised our two children here and now we have two grandchildren. Ben has the foresight and farming education to want to increase the dairy herd. He is a full-time, qualified farmer. He wants to expand the business, to build a large dairy unit at Hempstown but he can’t because [a 300m section] of land frozen for the expected upgrade of the N81 prevents that.

“He can’t look for grant aid, or seek a bank loan without proper planning permission – and until the N81 issue is resolved, we are locked in limbo land. We can’t sell. We tried three years ago and no one will buy the land when they realise the N81 300m issue. They’d have little or no compensation, no ‘reasonable expectation’.

“He’s willing to expand the business and needs a bigger milking parlour, to increase the herd from 85 to at least 120, and then possibly up to 160. We spend 25% of our working hours drawing fodder to The Lambe, when we have the capacity to develop and build larger accommodation at lands in Hempstown. But we can’t; can’t borrow, can’t build, can’t expand, can’t sell.

“Residents out this side of Wicklow seem to be on the blind side when it comes to Government attention.”

Andy stated he didn’t believe anything would be done before the next general election on the N81 and all monies and focus seemed to be diverted to the M50.

Meeting

And it doesn’t look like the situation is going to change anytime soon. Cllr Gerry O’Neill was one of several N81 committee members who attended a meeting recently with Minister for Transport Shane Ross and all sitting TDs for west Wicklow, including Minister for Health Simon Harris and Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture Andrew Doyle.

“[The meeting] was a farce; TII representatives who attended said they didn’t have the statistics of road fatalities and accidents with them. Why not? The meeting was agreed weeks in advance and we expected some preparation from the Government side.”

O’Neill added that, right up to the evening before, only the list of attendees and protocol was provided. “I had hoped we’d have a healthy exchange of local opinion and road stats, to support the need for an N81 upgrade.”

Sympathetic

However, he did think Minister Ross was sympathetic to, and interested in the plight of the farming community, such as the Hamiltons.

“He stated he was willing to come down to Blessington and meet with members of the community.” A meeting which has not happened yet.

“At least if we could proceed with stage four of the process, that is, the CPOs agreed with up to 100 landowners, [then] the unfortunate predicament of the Hamiltons would be relieved and commuters would feel some progress was shown,” he said.

Until there is some progress, the Hamiltons are in limbo land.