Council chiefs accused of “whining” about Christmas Market

A report by City Hall lambasting the organisers of the Christmas Market has been dismissed by the majority of councillors as a “whine”, with officials urged to get on with overcoming any difficulties for this year’s event.

The review of last year’s event alleged a litany of mishaps concerning near missed deadlines, late changes to the market layout and opening ceremony, as well as health and safety breaches.

These had “placed unwarranted stress on those addressing if from the Council’s side”, according to the Council’s Director of Services for Recreation and Amenity, Tom Connell.

The extensive damage to the grass in Eyre Square could not be sustained while the “huge demands” on the Council’s Parks Section – which was “a detriment to the approved work programme” – was something organisers must address “with a more coherent, planned and systematic operation”, Mr Connell concluded.

Labour councillor Billy Cameron said if the amount of energy put into the report had been redirected to engaging with organisers, the event would have passed off without fault.

“To me it’s a whine. I can hear the violins behind it,” he quipped.

He queried what had happened to the €83,000 paid by Milestone Inventive since 2011 to stage the event, which the Council had stated would be ringfenced for work in the square.

Cllr Frank Fahy (FG) labelled the report as ‘slanderous’. He pointed out that other Councils paid money for similar events – Cork paid €80,000 for a Christmas parade while Waterford spent €150,000 on Winterval.

“Okay there are issues, but let’s go ahead and solve them,” he urged. “It’s very unfair in a democratic society to only get one half of the story there [the report].

Cllr Mike Crowe (FF) said it was the Galway City Business Association who came up with the concept and operated it themselves. He urged the Council to sit down with the event managers appointed by the association to find solutions to ensure the market operates in a manner that the people of Galway deserved.

Mr Connell said the report sought to set out the time and energy that went into managing the public amenity and was “not in any way designed to discredit the organiser”. Two thirds of the €30,000 bond had been repaid, with the remainder to be handed back by the end of June.

Just two voices of dissent united to take the Council’s side – councillors Padraig Conneely and Catherine Connolly. She told the Chamber she supported the idea of looking at alternative sites to Eyre Square and staging a market with far more crafts rather than demonising Council staff.

In her letter to councillors in the wake of the report, Maria Moynihan Lee, Managing Director of Milestone Inventive, said an additional €10,000 had been added to their fee, bringing it to €30,000, to specifically cover the cost of Galway City Council staff processing the licence application.

She said accusations of significant chopping and changing were untrue as the correspondence showed that any changes between application and build were minimal.

She also argued that the Council did not issue warnings over health and safety. While they did raise concerns – including use of a forklift on a path, wearing of hard hats and working at height on an unsuitable platform – these were swiftly responded to and addressed after they were raised in emails hours later, rather than on the spot.

The deterioration of the grass surface was also addressed following a review by a landscaping company. It found that surface water run-off, absence of drains, blocked drains, accumulation of fallen leaves and insufficient provision of essential maintenance tasks such as regular aeration, fertilisation and over-seeding combined to poor quality grass.

Compaction from continuous people traffic coupled with a poor grass root structure also contributed.

Milestone had begun an extensive reseeding and aerating project on the Square with some sections entirely re-turfed.

However, ongoing year-round maintenance was required, including the installation of a drainage system, diverting run off from the hard surfaces, de-compaction and aeration every eight weeks, over-seeding from late May, twice-yearly fertilising and monthly stimulant as well as twice-weekly grass cutting and leaf collection.

Cllr Fahy said it was a disgrace to hear of drainage problems in the Square after €15m had been spent on its upgrade.