Council refunds €31,000 to ‘NAMA’ company

Cash-strapped Galway City Council made a refund of more than €30,000 to a NAMA-controlled development company, after the local authority failed to comply with planning conditions laid down by An Bord Pleanála.

As part of the conditions set out for the development of the ‘Galway Gateway’ retail park in Knocknacarra (also known as the Galway West Retail Park) in 2005, Rumbold Builders were ordered to pay €31,000 to the City Council for the provision of two controlled pedestrian crossings.

However, the crossings were never provided, and the Council was forced to refund the payment last November to receiver HWBC Allsop, which was appointed by the National Asset Management Agency to Rumbold in 2012.

The crossings were to have been on Bóthar Siofáin and on the Western Distributor Road.

Director of Services for Planning, Tom Connell, signed off on the refund “as crossings have not been provided”.

Local pedestrian rights group Cosain criticised the Council’s failure to provide the crossings.

A spokesperson said: “While the refund itself may be technically correct and bureaucratically justified within the terms of the Planning and Development Act, it beggars belief that the Council has not yet provided even the bare minimum number of controlled crossings ordered by An Bord Pleanála nine years ago in 2005.

“On the positive side, the refund draws a line under that particular debacle and allows a reappraisal of what is needed in terms of provision for pedestrians in the area.

“An Bord Pleanala’s minimalist requirement for one controlled crossing on Bóthar Stiofáin and another on the Western Distributor Road was already inadequate in 2005, and is even more so now.

“Schools, shops, services and commercial developments all generate pedestrian as well as vehicular traffic. Pedestrians, including children of school age and parents with infants in prams, who need to access the Business Park via its two entrances off Bóthar Stiofáin have to traverse this busy road without the aid of a controlled crossing.

“At the entrance near Monkey Business, a hugely popular attraction for children which has been operating for eight or nine years, there aren’t even any dished kerbs.

“It’s bizarre that the City Council did not use the €31,000 special contribution to supplement the Local Improvement Scheme when they had the chance, in order to provide proper controlled crossings along with the speed ramps.

“Galway City Council has since given planning permission for two primary schools in the immediate vicinity, the most recent of which is based in temporary accommodation within the Business Park itself, yet they have done almost nothing to provide safe routes to school.

“How does the Council expect children to walk to school from residential estates in Rahoon and Knocknacarra if a sufficient number of pedestrian-priority crossings are not provided on the main access routes?

“It is simply unacceptable that children walking or cycling to school are paying the price for this country’s dysfunctional planning system and previous economic mismanagement,” the Cosain spokesperson said.