Council pledge to sort pitch lighting

THERE is no chance of temporary floodlights being erected at the City Council’s all-weather pitch at Cappagh Park over the coming weeks but the local authority has committed to putting permanent lights in place there by next September.

That was the clear message relayed to councillors at Monday’s City Council meeting who had pleaded with officials to do whatever they could to put a temporary lighting solution in place between now and the end of March.

Hundreds of children and parents from the Knocknacarra area protested outside City Hall before last Monday’s meeting, chanting: ‘we want our lights back’, as councillors entered the Council chamber.

Last October, the local Knocknacarra FC soccer club erected temporary lighting at the Cappagh Road pitch but removed them in late November on instruction from the City Council, based on health and safety, insurance and environmental issues.

In a detailed seven-page report to councillors, City Council Acting Director of Services, Dermot Mahon, said that Knocknacarra FC were advised numerous times that lighting at Cappagh Park required planning permission.

One of the reasons, Mr Mahon outlined, was that the Cappagh Park pitch was located adjacent to an SAC (a Special Area of Conservation) which needed to comply with EU environmental directives [The Habitats Directive].

One of the issues involved in this, according to Mr Mahon’s report, is the presence of bats in the woodlands at Cappagh, which are a protected species under EU directives.

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

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