Kildare politician calls on Minister to halt construction of M9 service station near Kilcullen
A local councillor in Kildare has said that the proposed new service station on the M9 motorway between Kilcullen and Ballitore is not needed.
The long-mooted construction of the service station was finally given the green light earlier this summer when an agreement was made between forecourt operator Topaz and rivals Applegreen and Tedcastles Oil Products in a dispute over the awarding of a State contract to manage the facility.
However, Cllr Martin Miley believes that this new service station is not needed as the M9 is already adequately served by other stopping points.
"Government policy stated that we aspired to having services every 50 kilometres along our motorways", stated Cllr Miley.
"The construction of this facility has not happened but in the interim two facilities have been developed on the M9 motorway; at junction 5 Carlow, Topaz has opened a 3 star tourist attraction service station. Also, at Junction 7 M9 motorway Applegreen have open at three star tourist attraction service station. Maxol At Kill have totally upgraded their facility to a 3 star. The distance between these existing service stations is 63 km. Northbound At the same Distance Topaz are developing state-of-the-art online service station at Goffs. Are we now at saturation point with service stations," questioned Cllr Miley.
According to Cllr Miley, traffic volumes on the M9 amount to around 15,000 vehicles daily, while the volumes going by J14 Mayfield on the M7 amounts to over 35,000 each day. The former Mayor of Kildare has questioned whether or not the new service station is viable.
"In addition to all these online service stations we have top of the range service stations in Castledermot, Crookstown, Kilgowan and Kilcullen which are just 3 km off the motorway.
"The promise of 50 jobs when this facility is construct is false as it will lead to to displacement of jobs in our Rural community.
"I am now calling on the Minister for transport to assess the viability of this project. Already, €5 million of taxpayers money has been spent with the overall project to cost €25 million. I’m calling now for this to stop and have a full review of the total project."