Bypass delay could lead to withdrawal of State funding

Councillors have been warned that Galway may lose funding for the proposed bypass if they attempt to delay the route selection process.

The warning came from Acting City Chief Executive Joe O’Neill, after motions were put forward to stall the process and to exclude certain areas from route selection.

“Stopping or delaying the process now will make congestion worse and will impede economic development. Funding for [for the bypass] will be spent somewhere else,” said Mr O’Neill.

Just one councillor present, Noel Larkin (Ind), approved of the current route selection process, and said that if any motions to stall it were passed, it would be to the detriment of the city.

Meanwhile, legal opinion is to be sought by councillors on whether a ‘loophole’ can be exploited to exclude lands at Galway Racecourse, NUI Galway and in Menlo from the route selection process.

At a meeting of the local authority this week, four motions (and amendments to those motions) were put forward by councillors on the bypass plans, including one from Fine Gael’s John Walsh, who said a variation should be made to the City Development Plan, whereby lands at Galway Racecourse and NUIG be “excluded from any current or future proposals to develop road infrastructure in the city”.

An amendment to that motion from his party colleague Frank Fahy said that the Menlo village envelope (including a 500 metre exclusion zone), and Coolough, Castlegar and Briarhill also be excluded.

“If we make a variation excluding these locations, they’ll have to go back to the drawing board,” said Cllr Walsh.

However, Mr O’Neill said he had serious reservations about the motions, as the preferred route is set to be announced by the end of April.

He explained that the time period involved in drawing up a variation to the Development Plan, putting it on public display and approving it meant any variation would not be approved before the end of April.

“[On Cllr Walsh’s motion] the legal and practically implications are serious and would be contrary to the strategic objectives of the Development Plan,” said Mr O’Neill.

He added that such a motion would undermine the bypass selection process and therefore the entire project would have to be called into question.

“This is too important. It’s a very challenging and difficult situation. Nobody set out to upset people. Six different groups of people are understandably upset.

“There is no solution that doesn’t involve some negative impacts. When the Quincentenary Bridge was built, a number of homes were demolished. A solution to our problems is urgently needed. We have to have another crossing of the river. This will remove a significant barrier to the economic development of the city,” said Mr O’Neill.

He explained that the European ruling on the original bypass stated that all alternatives had to be looked at, and such a motion would block the alternative.

“You will actually be seen to be actively undermining the process. That motion is probably ultra vires [beyond your powers] – I would strongly recommend it is not adopted,” he said.

Separate motions from Cllr Padraig Conneely (FG) and Catherine Connolly (Ind) called for the route selection process to be halted, while a joint motion from councillors Declan McDonnell, Donal Lyons and Terry O’Flaherty (Independents) called on the consultants to re-examine the routes and prioritise human habitat over wildlife and Special Areas of Conservation.

Cllr Padraig Conneely (FG) said the proposals as they stand are unworkable.

“This is not an outer bypass, it’s an inner-city transport project. This is having a damaging effect on communities, amenities and tourism in all areas as well as businesses and the environment. It wasn’t researched well enough. There were 1,000 submissions sent to the NRA,” said Cllr Conneely.

Cllr McDonnell said he understood the brief for route design was to take traffic out of the city, not bring it back in.

Cllr Mike Cubbard (Ind) said the process was the most undemocratic thing he had seen happen in the city.

“If you gave a child six markers, they could come up with better proposals than this. It’s creating absolute pandemonium among the people,” he said.

Cllr Connolly said it was quite clear that the elected members have no power, but they did have moral power and asked her colleagues to put politics aside and to look at more sustainable long-term solutions to traffic.

It was agreed to defer all motions until March 23, when councillors will hold a special meeting on the bypass.