Fresh legal challenge to A5 road upgrade to be heard in March next year, High Court judge confirms

A fresh legal challenge to the £1.2bn A5 road upgrade will be heard in March next year, a High Court judge confirmed on Friday.Mr Justice McAlinden also allowed a group campaigning for improvements along a corridor which has claimed dozens of lives permission to participate in the case.Granting the status to the ‘A5 Enough is Enough’ body, he said: “The court will not refuse to receive information from those that have been directly affected by tragedy resulting from accidents on the existing carriageway.”

The long-awaited upgrade to the stretch of road between Derry and Aughnacloy in Co Tyrone was given the go-ahead by Infrastructure Minister John O’Dowd last month.Work on the first phase of the 53-mile project had been due to begin early next year.With 57 deaths recorded on the A5 since 2006, campaigners have demanded improvements to be carried out.The scheme, which forms part of a proposed key cross-border business route linking Dublin and the north west, has already been held up by previous legal actions.An umbrella body of landowners, farmers and supporters known as the Alternative A5 Alliance successfully challenged earlier decisions to approve the project in 2013 and again in 2018.

Fresh proceedings have now been brought by nine individuals against the Department for Infrastructure.They claim the decision to begin the initial phase breaches legislative goals for cutting greenhouse gas emissions in Northern Ireland.The Climate Change (NI) Act 2022 contains a series of interim targets moving towards achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.According to lawyers representing the group, approving part of the A5 scheme is irrational and an unlawful breach of the Act. In court today, counsel for the Department stressed the need for the challenge to be heard as soon as possible.With a vesting order for ownership of the land now in place, Paul McLaughlin KC submitted: “There is very substantial public interest in this.“The Department has programmes in place for beginning site work and there are ongoing discussions with contractors.”Acland Bryant, representing the nine people taking the legal challenge, agreed there should be no delay but suggested time will be needed to deal with the “complicated procedural background”.Mr Justice McAlinden, who has already pledged to clear his diary to deal with the case, confirmed it is to be listed for a five-day hearing in March.Citing negotiations with potential contractors for the major development, he insisted that the case needs to be resolved as quickly as possible.In a further development, the A5 Enough is Enough campaigners made an application for intervenor status.Stephen Toal KC, for the group, said it was created after Tyrone Gaelic footballer John Rafferty, 21, was killed on the A5 in October 2022.GAA stars Kevin Hughes and Niall Devlin have also lost siblings in crashes on the road, the court heard.Mr Toal said: “That is the reason why the management committee of Tyrone GAA decided to form this representative group.“Since formation the group has expanded to include dozens of families who lost loved ones on the A5.” The campaigners have met with Stormont Ministers, District Councillors and representatives in Dail Eireann.Mr Justice McAlinden was told the group wanted to provide evidence and assist in the case.Granting the application to participate in proceedings, he explained: “This is in essence an environmental challenge to be looked at in the context of a very significant infrastructure project which is not only intended to improve connectivity throughout the island of Ireland, but also in the eyes of many a vital piece of work needed to ensure further lives are not lost on that particular journey.”

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