The acting chair of the Alternative A5 Alliance has said they represent a "cross-section of society" and are not "bogey men".
Hamilton Hassard, leading figure of the group opposed to the development of the A5 Western Transport Corridor project, has also branded the suggestion that deaths are being caused on the road due to a lack of progress on the project as "scurrilous".
There have been renewed calls for progression of the road upgrade following the death of four men on the A5 in December, including three in a single incident at Garvaghey on December 27.
The Alternative A5 Alliance is the group behind a series of legal challenges which has thwarted the progress of the scheme, successfully arguing during the most recent public inquiry that the Department for Infrastructure should undertake a more detailed assessment of alternatives to building the new dual carriageway.
Local representatives have criticised the group for a lack of engagement with the public on the issue and not being representative of the local community but its acting chair and treasurer Hassard denies this.
Speaking to MyTyrone, Mr Hassard said: “The Alternative A5 Alliance is just a broad section of people, really a reflection of society.
“There are those out there who portray us a collection of old selfish farmers holding up progress.
“Nothing could be further from the truth. We have teachers, retired teachers, civil servants, retired civil servants, quantity surveyors, veterinary surgeons, postmasters.
“We just basically represent a cross-section of society, it’s very, very wrong and mischievous to portray us as a collection of old selfish farmers who don’t want to give up their land.
“We are not bogey men, we are not a secret society. We’re in the public domain, I have been on television a couple of times.
“We’ve been three or four times in the High Court and won our case."
However, Mr Hassard refused to comment on how many members the Alternative A5 Alliance had, only revealing that a group of between three and six key figures tend to "get on with the thing".
Mr Hassard has assumed the role of acting chair, following the the passing of former chair John Dunbar last year and added the group was "self-funded".
He said: “It’s like any organisation, there are sort of three, four, five or half a dozen or people who tend to get on with the thing and every now and then the whole lot of us meet up.
“I’m not prepared to say [how many members the group has] because the government or government department are sitting undoubtedly going across this and they would then make a judgement that these guys can’t go much further.
“Personalities and number of personalities are basically irrelevant in my view.
“The number of members is totally irrelevant.”
He added that it was “scurrilous” to suggest the current A5 was the cause of any fatalities, and "reprehensible" for anybody to say use road deaths for their own agenda.
Mr Hassard said: “Not once has a road been mentioned as the cause of an accident. There are such things as excess speed, driving while under the influence of either drugs or alcohol.
“There are people out there who are jumping on the fatality bandwagon, these are tragedies, these are people’s lives.
“I think it’s quite reprehensible of anybody to try and capitalise on other people’s tragedy to try and progress their agenda.”
A local roads expert who has said the A5 project may not now be feasible in its current form, has described the Alternative A5 Alliance as "shadowy".
Wesley Johnston told MyTyrone the public deserve to know more about the people behind the group holding it up.
Mr Johnston said: “Given that they have been challenging the scheme for years, the public deserve to know more about the organisation, and particularly what their rationale is for opposing it.
“We don’t know how many people are members of it. They are quite shadowy, you don’t know anything about them.”
West Tyrone SDLP MLA Daniel McCrossan said the public deserves answers and transparency from the group.
McCrossan added: “Despite the urgency of this project, the ‘Alternative A5 Alliance’ has been making continual efforts to hamper the delivery of this vital road and sabotage the will of the people.
“For the past number of years, I have tried to establish who is behind this group and their funding. I have called on the AA5A to meet with me on numerous occasions, but they have refused.
“They deserve to know who is funding the AA5A and they deserve to know their agenda.
“My message to those involved is this – the overwhelmingly majority of the general public and political representatives support the delivery of the A5.
"This road is vital to ensure safety and that no one else will needlessly die.”
Mr Hassard insisted the the group was in favour of upgrading the existing road and accused local representatives and the Department for "squandering" public money.
He said: “The clue is in our name, it’s the Alternative A5 Alliance, not the ‘Anti A5 Alliance’.
“We have been from the word go pushing for that road to be improved and brought up into the present day standard.
“We are for improvement of that road and have been since the day of our formation.
“This scheme has been a shambles from day one, and what we have done is expose the inadequacies and indeed the stupidity of government.
“They entered into this scheme, and did not do things they should have legally done.
“They have squandered over £100million of my money, your money, taxpayers’ money. A complete disgrace.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Infrastructure said minister Nichola Mallon remains committed to the A5 project in its current form, and work is ongoing to provide further assessments so that the public inquiry can reconvene this year.
"The Department has at all times endeavoured to fully comply with all the complex statutory processes involved in taking an ambitious scheme of this magnitude forward," the spokesperson said.
"The development costs since the scheme inception in 2007 amount to approximately £87m.
"These costs are not beyond expectations for a major infrastructure project of this magnitude and complexity.
"The Department fully complies with spending public money policies and guidance.”
