CITY TRIBUNE
Big step forward for primary care centre for western side of Galway City
From the Galway City Tribune – A ‘pre-planning’ meeting is due to be held shortly to progress the new primary care centre for the western side of Galway City, with an application expected to be lodged in December.
While the Health Service Executive (HSE) would not disclose which site the major project is earmarked for due to “commercial sensitivity”, the Galway City Tribune reported more than a year ago that it will be developed on the Micheál Ó hUiginn lands in Shantalla.
Joe Hoare, Assistant National Director of Capital and Estates, stated that his department is engaging with the successful bidder for the delivery of the primary care centre.
A previous plan to locate it in Knocknacarra was abandoned in favour of a more central location near the hospital.
“Our understanding is that there was a requirement identified in order to accurately assess vehicular traffic data and to inform the design process for some traffic engineering studies to be carried out during the school term,” said Mr Hoare.
“A report on same is to be completed and submitted as part of the planning permission application. This matter has been progressed and a preplanning meeting is due to be held with the local authority in the coming week. Further engagement with the HSE on the latest scheme to review layouts and adjacencies is also planned for the coming weeks.
“It is anticipated that a planning permission can be lodged by early December 2022,” he said.
During meetings about the next Galway City Development Plan, a 1.6-acre site on the Seamus Quirke Road which used to be home to the Lydon House bakery was included in the Seamus Quirke Road Regeneration Site.
On foot of a proposal from Cllr Peter Keane (FF), that designation now includes the area where Fine Wines currently trades which would give more leeway for development for the owners, the Cormicans, whose site borders the Ó hUiginn site.
Cllr Connolly said he believed it would make sense for access to be given off Seamus Quirke Road opposite McDonalds, but this would be assessed in a full traffic audit as part of the planning application.
He hoped this primary care centre would be host to an extensive range of services.
Other centres treat at least 90 per cent of medical conditions there rather than patients going to hospital.
In addition to GPs, some of the centres house dental, physiotherapy, speech and language therapy and mental health services. X-rays can also be carried out in a number of the larger ones.
The model involves a developer applying for planning permission for the building and maintaining it once approved by the HSE, which will take out a 25-year lease on the facility as part of the arrangement.
In August of last year, the Galway City Tribune revealed that the HSE West was in discussion with the businessman and former mayor, Mícheál Ó hUiginn, the owner of about 9.5 acres of vacant land off Seamus Quirke Road.
At the time, the HSE said it had not purchased the land, but it was in discussion about using part of the site for primary care – at the beginning of 2022, the “transaction” was approved by the HSE board and discussions have been ongoing since.
This article first appeared in the print edition of the Galway City Tribune, October 28. You can support our journalism by subscribing to the Galway City Tribune HERE. The print edition is in shops every Friday.
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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