Anti-bypass meeting attracts 600 people

Opponents of the planned new city bypass have been emboldened by the huge turnout at a meeting this week where An Taoiseach, Enda Kenny was called on to intervene and halt the road.

As many as 600 people turned up at the meeting in Clayton Hotel, where speaker after speaker said the bypass plans should be scrapped, and the money spent instead on sustainable public transport.

Landowners and farmers along the planned route told of fears that their land would be fragmented and dissected by the motorway.

Some 41 homes will be knocked to make way for the bypass, and many of those homeowners told the meeting of the horror that that prospect brings.

“Homeowners spoke about being evicted from their homes, and about the devastation it will cause,” said Marguerite Tonery of Castlegar Community Group, which organised the meeting.

“People wanted to know why the City Council has washed their hands of this. Why is it that the County Council is the lead agent and has taken over from the City Council even though the majority of the bypass is within the city boundary,” she said.

Ms Tonery said building new roads is a policy that is out of sync with the direction being taken in Europe – the European Union is doubling funding for sustainable and public transport options and Galway should be aiming for a slice of this.

For more on this story, see this week’s Galway City Tribune