City Council is swamped by cycle lane submissions

City Hall was flooded with an unprecedented number of submissions from the public on controversial plans for a temporary cycle lane this summer in Salthill.

Chief Executive of Galway City Council Brendan McGrath confirmed that as many as 7,500 submissions were received by the local authority’s Transport Directorate by the deadline of the non-statutory consultation which closed last Friday.

He said that about three-quarters of the submissions were made electronically, and the remaining quarter was submitted in the traditional way – hardcopies handed in or submitted by post.  That’s roughly 6,000 online submissions and 1,500 hardcopy submissions – a level of interest rarely seen before for a project by Galway City Council.

Mr McGrath is due to compile a report on the contents of the submissions and present it to city councillors at the February meeting of the City Council.

The proposal has two options for a cycle lane along the Prom in Salthill and onwards to Barna Road. It is supposed to proceed for six months from March.

City Councillor Donal Lyons (Ind) – the only councillor out of 18 who voted against a Notice of Motion for a cycle lane last September – has said the sums on this project don’t add up.

Last week, Green Party Senator Pauline O’Reilly and Galway West TD, and Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Hildegarde Naughton (FG) declared that a total of €1m had been allocated to the delivery of this cycle-lane.

But Cllr Lyons said that any project that goes over €128,000 needs Part 8 planning permission – which involves a statutory process.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.

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