CITY TRIBUNE
FOI shows Galway 2020 ‘confident’ issue could be resolved
Two weeks before it lost its creative director, Galway 2020 told officials working for Minister for Culture Josepha Madigan it was “confident the issue could be concluded satisfactorily”.
The “possible departure” of Galway 2020’s Creative Director, Chris Baldwin was first flagged by Declan McGonagle, the minister’s representative on the board of Galway 2020, in a briefing to Feargal Ó Coigligh, an official in the minister’s department, on May 16.
“Dialogue on this is ongoing at this time but Galway 2020 was confident the issue could be concluded satisfactorily,” according to minutes of the meeting, released to the Galway City Tribune under Freedom of Information.
Two weeks later, on May 30, Galway 2020 officially confirmed Mr Baldwin’s departure “by mutual agreement”.
Meanwhile, five days after that, the records show, Galway 2020 had approached Martin Green, former director of Hull UK City of Culture 2017 to help them out.
An email sent at 9.25pm on the night before the story of Mr Baldwin’s departure broke, Mr McGonagle told Mr Ó Coigligh of the impending departure, “ahead of any press pick-up”.
“Apologies for cutting into your evening. Just wanted to update on the Board meeting and decisions today. The ‘deal’ with Creative Director was due to be signed off by the end of business today, having been agreed earlier by the Board. Sill awaiting sign off on terms as previously indicated to you.
“The PR on this is ready to go with an agreed statement i.e. leaving ‘by mutual agreement’ with some reconfiguration of structure to focus on the next phase”.
He said he was telling him this because Chief Executive of Galway City Council Brendan McGrath had a meeting with City Councillors earlier that afternoon, which was attended by journalists, and “he felt that they might have had some information on this and there is a possibility that something on this situation could appear shortly, maybe even tomorrow”.
He said that Baldwin’s departure statement would include a sentence outlining Galway 2020 Board’s “intention is to have an artistic/creative leadership role in place in the near future with no loss of momentum, following enlargement of the team”.
Mr McGonagle said: “This is verbally agreed, after legal advice, and I have just got a message that the agreement has now been signed by Chris (Baldwin).”
Parts of this and other emails pertaining to the severance ‘deal’ between Galway 2020 and Mr Baldwin were redacted in the FOIs because it contained personal information.
Five days after it officially announced Mr Baldwin’s departure, on June 5, Minister Madigan’s officials were informed that Galway 2020 had “approached Martin Green, former Director of Hull (Uk City of Culture 2017).”
Mr McGonagle, in an email to Mr Ó Coigligh, said: “Martin Green is widely acknowledged to have developed and directed a very successful cultural programme for Hull and has serious credibility in the field, dating also from the successful cultural programme he led during and after the 2012 London Olympics. He will visit Galway on June 11 to finalise a focused brief for his work. He will be available at times during June but will spend the month of July in Galway.
“This is a particularly useful period in the city because of the (arts) Festival and the attendance of arts/cultural practitioners and media, with whom he will interact as well setting up and continuing to develop relations with local/regional partners. This is, in the circumstances, a very positive step and will, as intended, bridge 2020 to the full strategic appointment.”
Mr McGonagle added that “Minister (Madigan) seemed content that the momentum would not be disrupted and that we needed to ‘get on’. That is what this immediate process will facilitate
Mr Green – who has not yet officially been confirmed by Galway 2020 as having been hired as a consultant – visited Galway on June 11, according to the emails.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
The new Salmon Weir pedestrian and cycle bridge will be officially opened to the public next Friday, May 26.
Work on the €10 million bridge got underway in April 2022, before the main structure was hoisted into place in early December.
A lunchtime tape-cutting ceremony will take place on Friday, as the first pedestrians and cyclists traverse the as-yet-unnamed bridge.
The Chief Executive of Galway City Council, Brendan McGrath, previously said the bridge, once opened, would remove existing conflicts between pedestrians, cyclists and traffic “as well as facilitating the Cross-City Link public transport corridor over the existing 200-year-old bridge”.
The naming of the new bridge has been under discussion by the Council’s Civic Commemorations Committee since late last year.
One name that has been in the mix for some time is that of the first woman in Europe to graduate with an engineering degree – Alice Perry.
Ms Perry, who was from Wellpark, graduated from Queen’s College Galway (now University of Galway) in 1906. The university’s engineering building is named in her honour.
The bridge was built by Jons Civil Engineering firm in County Meath and was assembled off-site before being transported to Galway. Funding for the project was provided in full by the National Transport Authority and the European Regional Development Fund.
(Photo: Sheila Gallagher captured the city’s new pedestrian footbridge being raised on the south side of the Salmon Weir Bridge in December. It will officially open next Friday, May 26).
From the Galway City Tribune – Minister of State for Local Government and Planning, Kieran O’Donnell was labelled a “disgrace” for overturning councillors’ decisions to rezone land in the new City Development Plan.
Minister O’Donnell (pictured) confirmed in a letter to Council Chief Executive Brendan McGrath last week that he was reversing 25 material alternations made by councillors to the CDP 2023-29. He made the decision on the advice of Office of Planning Regulator (OPR).
Minister O’Donnell directed that 14 land parcels that were subject to land-use zoning changes by councillors as part of the Material Alterations to the Draft CDP should be reversed.
He directed that a further 11 land parcels in the city should become “unzoned”.
The Minister found that the CDP had not been made in a manner consistent with recommendations of the OPR, which required specific changes to the plan to ensure consistency with the national planning laws and guidelines.
At last week’s Council meeting Cllr Eddie Hoare (FG) asked for clarity on the process by which councillors could rezone the lands that had been changed by the Minister’s direction.
Cllr Declan McDonnell said, “What he [Minister O’Donnell] has done is an absolute disgrace”.
And he asked: “Do we have to have another development plan meeting to deal with it?”
Both Cllrs Hoare and McDonnell wondered what would become of the lands that were rezoned or unzoned by the ministerial direction.
Mr McGrath said the Council had put forward an argument in favour of retaining the material alterations in the plan, but ultimately the Minister sided with OPR.
He said if councillors want to make alterations to the new plan, they could go through the process of making a material alteration but this was lengthy.
The Save Roscam Peninsula campaign welcomed the Minister’s decision.
In a statement to the Galway City Tribune, it said the direction would mean the Roscam village area on the Roscam Peninsula will be unzoned and a number of land parcels would revert back to agriculture/high amenity.
A spokesperson for the campaign said: “the material alterations made by city councillors following lobbying by developers continued the long-standing practice of councillors facilitating a developer-led plan rather than an evidence- and policy-based plan that meets the needs of the city.
“The Minister’s direction is an important step in restoring confidence in the planning system. It is clear from the City Council’s own evidence on future housing projections that there was no requirement to zone these lands for residential purposes in order to meet the needs of the targeted population increase up to 2029,” the spokesperson added.
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