CITY TRIBUNE
Council chief refutes claims over social housing costs
The Chief Executive of Galway City Council has refuted claims that councillors were “kept in the dark” over the costs of building social houses in Knocknacarra.
The Galway City Tribune reported a fortnight ago that the 14 houses on the Upper Ballymoneen Road would cost an average of €330,000 – around twice the national average. They are part of a proposal for a total of 69 homes on the site.
At a subsequent local authority meeting, Cllr Declan McDonnell said that at no time did the former Director of Services for Housing, Tom Connell, inform councillors of the construction costs.
He said he had to find out by reading this newspaper, and he now understood the reluctance of the Department to proceed with the houses.
“I’m very disappointed that I had to learn and read about it in the Tribune. We’ve been talking about this for twelve months, we’re being left in the dark. We’re not being told the facts.
“At no time were we told the cost was the problem. It beggars belief that we would waste that kind of money and not find a new site. We weren’t told the truth. I hope into the future it will be facts rather than fiction,” said Cllr McDonnell.
Cllr Donal Lyons said the first he heard of the costs was on Galway Bay fm last week, and he described them as “rather exorbitant”.
Mike Cubbard said he was hearing the figures for the first time at the meeting and they sounded “absolutely daft”.
Cllr Padraig Conneely said he was in the same position, and it was unacceptable that councillors were not given the full information.
Mr Connell said the Council had been engaging with the Department for the past three years on the Ballymoneen site, and there was a legacy there of consultative costs, preparation of plans etc.
He explained that the Department allowed the Council to go forward with 14 of the 69 houses, they went to tender and selected a preferred contractor. He said every stage of the process was overseen by the Dept and the Council is now seeking approval to move forward.
He totally rejected any suggestion that the Council executive was not up front with information.
Chief Executive Brendan McGrath said: “I refute completely that we’ve been telling lies”, adding that that details would be given to the councillors when the tender process had been completed, as is protocol.
He said the 14 houses are on one side of a new access road, and would all have to be services, so a lot of the costs for development of the site were front-loaded.
“It’s a public tender, we select the most economically-advantageous tender, the houses are specced to meet modern building requirements. Yes, the Dept is right to be concerned, but we went to the market based on a specification, and that is the price the market came forward with.
“We’ve got a chronic shortage of social housing and also a shortage of overall housing which is contributing to the housing crisis,” said Mr McGrath.
He said the city has a shortage of in excess of 3,500 units of accommodation, and required 300 to 350 new units per annum just to keep pace with organic growth in population.
Over the next 18 to 21 months, about 250 units will be provided, he said.
Mr Connell said that as well as the other 55 units on the Ballymoneen site, there were 77 units to be built beside the new Coláiste na Coiribe school as part of a Public-Private Partnership.
“That’s a fairly slow-burner and will take a number of years to deliver and will be bundled with other sites around the country,” he said.
He said there is also potential for 42 units at Baile an Choiste off the Headford Road, but the access road would have to be improved first at a cost of €2m (which would also open up private development land). The Council would be seeking €1.5m in funding and would have to come up with €500,000 from its own budget.
The Council also plans to deliver in excess of 30 social housing units in Doughiska.
A report on the cost of the 14 Ballymoneen properties is to be presented to the Department tomorrow (Wednesday).
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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