A local councillor says he's hopeful that a route announcement for the upgrade of the N55 near Ballymahon won't impact too much on planning decisions.
An official announcement has been made this week regarding the Preferred Route Corridor between Ballymahon and Athlone.
The scheme is due to upgrade up to 17 kilometers of the N55 between the two towns and work has been underway on route selection since 2017. It's planned to bypass Ballykeeran and Glasson as part of the new route and between 250 and 300 landowners are likely to be effected.
Fine Gael Councillor Tom Farrell says while planning decisions will be frozen for those inside a 150 metre corridor along the proposed route, he's hopeful it won't impact too badly.
''Anybody within the 150 metre corridor won't get planning but we got it clarified yesterday anything outside of the corridor, they will try and facilitate and they will deal with it on an individual basis, one by one, in fairness if there was a farmer's son or daughter wanted to build a house I think that can be overcome, we've heard of stories where land was tied up for 20 - 30 years, it can't be done that way so I think in fairness to them they're trying to overcome that.''
