Council crews and specialists drafted in to clean up Galway city centre

From this week’s Galway City Tribune – A mammoth effort to rid Galway of its recently acquired ‘grubby image’ got underway this week as the city was readied for peak festival season in July.

A power-washing programme to clean embedded beer, food and urine stains from some of the main thoroughfares was completed on Wednesday, as remediation works were carried out on areas that had suffered neglect since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The majority of the work is being undertaken by City Council crews, but two specialist contractors have also been hired – at a cost of €75,000 – for chewing gum and graffiti removal.

Council Chief Executive Brendan McGrath told the Galway City Tribune that the local authority’s environment and parks departments had been working together to tackle the problem which had drawn sharp criticism from politicians and residents in recent weeks.

“A deep clean of the city was needed and was long overdue. There had been a lot of damage to Eyre Square last summer during outdoor dining when it became an area where large crowds were congregating every night.

“I will concede that we do need to up our game. This type of deep cleaning does need to be carried out more often. We don’t have the resources to do it every day or every night but it can’t be a one-off either,” said Mr McGrath.

This is a shortened preview version of this article. To read the rest of the story, see the June 24 edition of the Galway City Tribune. You can buy a digital edition HERE.