€200m port expansion facing two year delay

Date Published: 26-Jan-2012

BY ENDA CUNNINGHAM

A planning application for the €200 million redevelopment of Galway Port will not be lodged until August, more than two years behind schedule.

And Galway Harbour Company must now carry out site investigation works for a second time – last November, the Galway City Tribune exclusively revealed that initial works were carried out without a licence from the Department of the Environment.

The planning application was initially expected to be lodged with An Bord Pleanála in April 2010, however, a series of delays has now pushed this out to next August.

A ‘foreshore licence’ for drilling boreholes at the Docks has now been granted by the Department, and tenders are being prepared for the work to be carried out for a second time, which will cost in the region of €100,000.

Meanwhile, an ongoing survey of whale and dolphin wildlife in the area will not be completed until next July.

Eamon Bradshaw, CEO of Galway Harbour Company told the Galway City Tribune: “We will proceed with boreholes before April, and analyze the results. As soon as we finish the 12 months cetacean survey [in June], we will assess that, and input the relevant information into the planning application. So, we’d hope that in August we can lodge the application.”

He refused to confirm if site investigation boreholes had previously been drilled without a foreshore licence.

For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.