Council wins award for Ocean Race stopover

Date Published: 03-Nov-2009

GALWAY City Council has scooped a prestigious award in recognition of enhancement works carried out in preparation for the Volvo Ocean Race stopover. The award was presented to Mayor Declan McDonnell Wednesday night by Environment Minister John Gormley at the Chambers Ireland ‘Excellence in Local Government Awards’ in the Burlington Hotel in Dublin. According to Chambers Ireland, the Economic Development Award was “for their organisation of the Galway stop-over of the Volvo Ocean Race which involved a number of improvements to the city in the areas of planning, transport and environment”. The Mayor told the Sentinel that the award “is in recognition of the huge work by the Council in promoting the Ocean Race, helping secure investment, and their own investment of around €2 million in time and physical funding”. “They were a key stakeholder in the stop-over alongwith Fáilte Ireland, as well as John Killeen, Gerry Barrett, Enda Ó Coineen and Eamon Conneely. “The original target was to attract 140,000 people to Galway. It ended up attracting 650,000 and was seen on television by a further one billion people worldwide. Those figures speak for themselves. This award is well-deserved and congratulations to everyone involved. They’ve done Galway proud. “The City Council carried out infrastructural work in the last two or three years ahead of the stop-over. This is work that was fast-tracked and may not have been carried out otherwise. “The stop-over also helped retail businesses in the city, with small businesses being able to showcase their work at the Docks,” said the Mayor. The Council was also shortlisted for the ‘Boots Partnership with Business Award’ for the award-winning private coach station and Webworks building at the Fairgreen. Cllr Padraig Conneely, who was Mayor when the Ocean Race came to Galway, also expressed his delight at the award. “The success of the event proves that Galway can host major world events and that we can be relied on to step up to the plate when given the opportunity,” he added.