An Bord Pleanála has begun a hearing into a controversal road and bridge project in Sligo that residents in the area say would destroy their community.
Sligo Borough Council is proposing to construct approach roads and a bridge across the River Garavogue in one of the longest established residential areas in the town.
Engineers say that it would make access to facilities like the hospital easier, reduce travel times and traffic in the town centre, open up large areas on both sides of the river for development and link communities north and south of the river.
However, residents in the affected area on the southern side of the river say the proposal is deeply traumatising for them.
They say the Council is driving a motorway with ten feet high walls on either side through their estates and the traffic would increase from 900 vehicles a day to 20,000 a day within ten years or less.
Local residents say the area is a beautiful one and they take pride in keeping it that way.
They claim that if the road and bridge goes through the last untouched green area in the town will be gone.
