CITY TRIBUNE
City Council brands Mellows plan for floodlights as ‘excessive’
Galway City Council has described plans for new floodlighting at Liam Mellows GAA grounds in Ballyloughane as “excessive” and ordered them to be scaled back.
The club has been asked to address concerns from a neighbouring resident who said the astroturf cages are making her life a misery”.
The Council has also asked the club why a coastal walkway – a key stipulation from a previous planning permission at what is known locally as Kelly’s Field – has not yet been built.
The club had sought permission to replace eight floodlights with eight floodlight columns, each of 16 metres in height on the existing main pitch and to install eight floodlight columns (12 metres in height) on the training pitch, as well as a generator container.
According to the planning application, Liam Mellows currently fields 23 teams in all grades and age groups, and has over 700 members – the highest number since it was founded in 1933.
“In December 2017, Liam Mellows GAA Club won the Galway Senior Hurling Championship for the first time since 1970, bridging a 47-year-gap since the last victory. The County success meant the club qualified for the All-Ireland semi-final, played in February 2018.
“For this first time in many years, this required the club’s main team to train throughout the winter, which seriously exposed the inadequacies of the existing facilities.
“With only one (poorly) floodlit pitch in Ballyloughane, the panel of over 40 players and management were forced to travel to use floodlit pitches in Limerick City, Claremorris and Athlone.
“This reality caused the club to reassess its current and future needs and set the objective of being able to fully accommodate its full playing and training needs at the grounds in Ballyloughane in all weather conditions and at all times of year,” the application reads.
It adds that while their new full-size pitch is due to be completed this year, in the winter months, teams will have to relocate to other floodlit or indoor facilities, such as Galway Community College’s gym or Renmore Community Centre.
“The intention of the application is to provide a sufficient level of floodlighting on the existing grass pitches, to allow the existing level of activity during the summer months be extended into winter months.
“It is not envisaged that the proposed development would result in any direct increase in club members or playing numbers. The works are primarily intended to ensure that the same level of usage the grounds can accommodate during the longer summer evenings, can be extended earlier and later in the calendar year,” the application reads.
According to the club, the existing flood lights are ten metres high and are no longer fit for purpose, having been installed in 2002.
The plans have been supported by Renmore Residents’ Association, which said: “The proposals are entirely in keeping with the recreational and sporting uses of this area and we unreservedly support this application,” the residents’ submission reads.
A resident living at Ballyloughane Strand said her life had been turned into a nightmare since the completion of the cages in 2010, and said she and her late husband had not been made fully aware of the extent of that development by Liam Mellows.
She said footballs and sliotars entering her property were dangerous and posed a health and safety hazard, while the new lights would lead to greater noise levels – including loud shouting of players.
The resident said there had been an enormous increase in traffic to and from the grounds and the parking situation made it impossible for emergency services to access her home.
She said that trespass from users of the facility retrieving balls had become so frequent, that she had to ask the Gardaí for help to stop it.
The City Council has called on the club to comment on the concerns raised by the objector.
They also pointed out that a number of planning conditions in the permission for the new GAA pitch have not been complied with, in particular, the development of a coastal ‘green’ walkway, and have sought clarification on that.
“The [Council] considers that the cumulative visual impact of the existing, permitted and proposed floodlighting and ball stop nets provides for a negative impact on Protected Views (across Galway Bay) by virtue of the number, scale and expanse. The applicant is asked to revise the scale and nature of the development,” planners said.
They added that a report submitted with the application did not satisfactorily demonstrate that the development would not have an impact on the Galway Bay Special Area of Conservation and Inner Galway Special Protection Area.
Planners have also questioned the requirement for two playing pitches and the astroturf pitches to be floodlit, and to clearly outline the number of competitive games it is envisaged will take place on site, and the implications for traffic and parking.
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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