Community plan to find new city funding streams

A new community plan being drawn up by Galway City Council should open up new avenues of European funding and coordinate all local bodies to pull together.

Galway City Council is currently preparing a Local Economic and Community Plan (LECP) for Galway City under changes to the Local Government legislation.

The plan will influence the economic, social and community development of Galway City until 2021.

The LECP is being developed through the Local Community Development Committee (LCDC), which has 17 members representing various community interests and state bodies and replaced the City Development Board, which were found to be too unwieldy with 36 members in Galway City.

It will not replace the City Development Plan – which is designed to plan for the built environment. It aims to instead meet four goals – develop and promote Galway as a world-class, creative city region; develop and promote Galway as an innovative city; encourage a self-sustaining urban eco-system in Galway as the regional capital of the West, and, lastly, to ensure Galway city is an equal and inclusive city.

The plan will have a set of clearly defined actions to carry out each goal, which will be assessed regularly by the Committee. It is currently seeking submissions to draw up the plan, asking groups and agencies for their vision for Galway City, with the closing date by today.

Liam Hanrahan of Galway City Council said the plan would be a mechanism for gathering and coordinating the work of all local bodies, such as educational bodies, social protection agencies and joint policing committees.

It would help identify blockages that are hindering the work of these bodies by ensuring cross-agency support.

For more on this story, see this week’s Galway City Tribune