Kerry County Council has apologised to a landowner on the proposed South Kerry Greenway for “a genuine” mistake writing to his dead father ‘RIP’ and then inviting the deceased man to a consultation meeting.

The Council has also been accused also of “pitting” landowners against each other – a claim that is denied – and of not taking enough care with landowners concerns, the ongoing hearing into the Kerry Greenway has heard.

Everyone was for the greenway, but the county council had mishandled the matter, and moving to the CPO mechanism was putting it at risk, it was stated at the oral hearing which is in its second week in Tralee.

The council sent a letter addressed to ‘John Lyne, (RIP)’ Boulerdagh, Kells, on June 8, 2016. But his son Morgan Lyne, one of a number of landowners strongly opposed to the compulsory purchase mechanism, but for the greenway itself, told the hearing how he had actually approached the council before that date and asked them to note his father had passed away in November 2014.

“I didn’t want letters arriving to the house in his name so I told one of the engineers involved in the project my mother was now the owner of the said plots,” he told An Bord Pleanala chairperson Karla McBride.

His mother, then aged 80, received the correspondence addressed to her dead husband and this was extremely upsetting for her. The couple had been married for 54 years.

On June 20 a second letter arrived inviting his deceased father to “a consultation meeting” at the Ring of Kerry Hotel.

Three dead people – including an uncle who died in 2011, and a man who passed away in 1972 in the small townland near Kells, had received communication about the CPO of their lands for the greenway from the county council, Mr Lyne said.

“This was deeply upsetting for us; we never received an apology for those letters, or even an explanation,” Mr Lyne said.

In July2015 – well over a year since the greenway was announced and months after the council voted to proceed to CPO after being told grant money was at risk if the greenway were not finished by December 2016 – the council was still trying to identify landowners, Mr Lyne also said.

Senior planner Tom Sheehy said he was apologizing to Mr Lyne. The error was caused by a mail merge list. It was a genuine mistake.

Mr Lyne said the apology rang “hollow” and had come too late.

“I want to clearly outline that the landowners were willing to negotiate a route for the greenway if it were built, it needs to be done correctly for this generation and following generations,” Mr Lybne said.

“The CPO should not be granted. It will only lead to further problems,” Mr Lyne also said.

Another landowner Ciaran Quinlan of Renard outside Cahersiveen, of the family which owns Quinlans fish, also criticised the council’s handling of the landowner’s issues.

“I am not here as an objector,” Mr Quinlan told the hearing . Everyone was for the greenway. However the council had “not handled” the matter correctly.

“They pitted people against each other. The council should have treated us with a little more care,” Mr Quinlan said.

Mr Quinlan said there was nobody who was not for the greenway.

He lives by the sea in Renard and coastal erosion was considerable. He has asked the council to move the route up from the sea “a couple of metres” and also for an underpass to enable him to come and go to his house.

“It has been quite difficult dealing with the council at the start but in the last few months it has improved,” Mr Quinlan said.

Of the three routes available they picked the one “right in front of my door,” he said.

However, senior planner Tom Sheehy said the council had analysed the different alternatives carefully and it was not as if they just decided “let’s put it there”.

Mr Quinlan responded the council should have worked with the landowners, as everyone wanted the greenway.

The council said it moved to the CPO after months of negotiation with landowners failing. Some who were for it at the beginning changed their minds, the hearing was told. The council also said the project is needed for the regeneration of west Iveragh, and “the common good.”.

The hearing in Tralee continues.

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