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Call for market probe after Eyre Square left a muddy mess
A city councillor has called for ‘a root and branch investigation’ of the operation of the Christmas Market at Eyre Square after he claimed that the area had been left in a ‘very poor state’ following last December’s event.
Cllr. Padraig Conneely claimed that conditions laid down by the City Council in relation to the operation of the market were ‘not strictly adhered to’ on a number of issues.
“We now require a root and branch investigation of the operation of the Christmas Market – its location, its operation methods, its impact on the Eyre Square grass area and its overall impact on the city,” said Cllr. Conneely.
He also said that the impact of the Christmas Market on the weekly St. Nicholas’ Market should be taken into account in any review, while he also claimed that the deadline in relation to the payment of the operational fee to the City Council had not been adhered to.
“The market promoters also failed to inform the City Council – as per their conditions – that Lidl would be erecting 11 stalls in Eyre Square as part of the Christmas Market.
“A public space, such as Eyre Square, is for the recreational use of the Galway public and visitors to the city,” said Cllr. Conneely.
He also claimed that only half of the agreed operational fee of €30,000 had been paid to the City Council, as of this week, and he asked: ‘when will the remainder of this fee be paid up?’.
A spokesman for the City Council told the Galway City Tribune that any remedial works that needed to be carried out to restore the green area of Eyre Square, would be undertaken by their Parks Committee at no cost to the city.
“The Market promoters pay a fee of €30,000 for the Eyre Square area and in addition to that they provide a bond of a further €20,000 to cover any cost that could arise in terms of carrying out any remedial works.
“Where grass areas are covered in the mid-winter period there will be some temporary impact on the grass area, but certain measures were put in place for last year’s market to minimise any such damage.
“Our Parks Committee has closely monitored the condition of Eyre Square and is fully confident that it will be in pristine condition again by the late spring, early summer period.
“The only constraint on them at the moment, in terms of completing this work, is the lack of growth in the mid-winter period, but you can take it, that the Square will be in perfect shape again over the coming months,” said the City Council spokesman.
He also confirmed that while €15,000 had been paid by the market organisers up until now, the City Council had been assured that the outstanding €15,000 would be paid up ‘over the coming days’.
He also pointed out that the decision to have the Christmas Market in Eyre Square was one taken at a full meeting of the City Council after all the issues had been carefully considered.
“The decision to go ahead with the Christmas Market came before a full meeting of the City Council and was passed by 17 votes to one,” said the spokesman.
Some 60 tourism companies from Ireland attended ‘Flavours of Ireland’ 2022 in London last week – including Connemara Wild Escapes, DK Connemara Oysters and Killary Fjord Boat Tours.
‘Flavours’ is Tourism Ireland’s annual B2B tourism workshop, where tourism companies from Ireland meet and do business with top global inbound tour operators.
Now in its 20th year, ‘Flavours’ took place in the Guildhall, in the City of London, and was attended by around 100 global inbound tour operators who deliver business from all over the world, including the United States, Mainland Europe, Asia, Australasia and Africa.
‘Flavours’ provides an excellent opportunity for the participating tourism providers from Galway and Ireland to highlight and sell their tourism product and build valuable relationships with the key decision-makers in attendance.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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From the Galway City Tribune – The Office of the Planning Regulator (OPR) has asked Galway City Council to roll back material alterations to the new City Development Plan proposed by councillors.
In July, elected members voted through a raft of changes to zonings in the Draft City Development Plan 2023-29, which went out on public display.
But the Planning Regulator has now warned City Hall that many of the proposed changes do not comply with the OPR’s recommendations, and are contrary to national planning guidelines.
The OPR specifically highlighted problems with proposals to rezone as residential land deemed at risk of flooding.
Anne Marie O’Connor, Deputy Regulator, wrote to the Council’s Planning Department outlining the OPR’s fresh advice on the changes to the draft plan proposed and approved by councillors.
The draft plan will come before elected members again this month.
Councillors will be asked to row back on some of their previous material alterations, which ran contrary to advice of the OPR.
Ms O’Connor said the OPR welcomed many of the changes made by the City Council in its draft plan. She said, however, that the OPR “has a number of outstanding concerns relating to the response of the planning authority to its recommendations and to a number of proposed material alterations relating to the zoning of lands”.
These relate to changes that conflict with national and regional objectives for compact growth; with legislative requirements regarding climate action and core strategies; and with rezoning land at risk of flooding.
The OPR highlighted a dozen or more material alterations by councillors that are “not consistent” with the National Planning Framework for compact growth.
These include re-zoning of land from agricultural or recreational and amenity to residential.
The changes voted on by councillors, the OPR noted, were done against the advice of the Council’s Chief Executive Brendan McGrath.
The OPR said the changes proposed by councillors represented a “piecemeal approach” to zoning and were “inconsistent” with national policy.
These comments related to proposed rezoning of land at Rahoon; Dublin Road; Quarry Road, Menlo; Ballindooley; off Circular Road; Menlo village; Roscam and Barna Woods.
The OPR also raised “significant concerns” over five material alterations proposed for residential zonings of land at Western Distributor Road; Terryland; Menlo Village; Headford Road and Barna Woods which are located within flood zones.
The approach by councillors “may place people and property at unnecessary risk from future flood events”, the OPR warned.
Ms O’Connor told planners that if the draft plan ignores the OPR advice or is at odds with its recommendations, the Council Chief Executive must inform the OPR in writing the reasons for doing so.
Save Roscam Peninsula in a 33-page submission to the draft plan echoed many of the concerns outlined by the OPR.
The Council has pencilled in four dates in November and December to approve the plan.
It will meet on November 21, 24 and 28 and December 1 when material alterations will be voted on individually.
This article first appeared in the print edition of the Galway City Tribune, November 4. You can support our journalism by subscribing to the Galway City Tribune HERE. The print edition is in shops every Friday.
JOHN HARNEY from Mountpleasant first joined the Ballinasloe Horse and Agriculture Show Committee, all of 60-years ago, on April 24, 1962. Both John and the show are still going strong as they celebrate their 183rd event on this Sunday. Here, he looks back on his involvement with this iconic show through the years.
THE Ballinasloe Show back in the early 1960s was going well with both the Showgrounds and Duggan Park both used for running the competitions.
My first introduction to the show was stewarding the pony competitions in the Mountpleasant end of the Duggan Park with the rest of the GAA field being used for trade stands.
At that time, it was a very big show with horses, ponies, cattle and sheep, pigs and fowl – also there was a big garden and farm produce section as well as a home craft and baking section with flowers and plants supported by a very large women’s committee.
At that time, showjumping took place in the afternoon with the top riders in the country taking part. I was elected Chairman at the AGM in 1975, a position I held for ten years.
During that time, the Duggan Park Committee approached the Show Committee for a piece of the showgrounds behind the GAA Stand for dressing rooms.
This was brought up a number of times at our committee meetings, and at first, the view was that the Duggan Park Committee would buy the ground.
However, after much deliberation it was decided by the Show Committee to ‘give the ground’ for the sum of £1 with the proviso that the dressingrooms could be used on show days by the local ICA to do catering for the event.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
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