Councillors press ahead with coastal scheme – despite ‘zero chance’ of approval

From this week’s Galway City Tribune – Councillors have passed a motion to push ahead with the Sailín to Silverstrand walkway and coastal protection scheme . . . even though it stands no chance of getting approval due to changes in the environmental legislation.

Those laws have changed to such a degree that the Council has been told that the walkway it has already completed behind Galway Golf Club following a storm in 2014 could be in breach of planning laws.

An Bord Pleanála approved a scheme in 2007 to prevent coastal erosion for the next 40 years which would see the erosion of drumlins at Knocknagoneen and Gentian Hill, leading to the possible ‘eradication’ of Lough Rusheen and Silverstrand.

Environmental consultants RPS, who carried out a review of the project, found that the altered scheme was a material alteration to the original scheme and the planning appeals board was likely to conclude that the alterations “may give rise to significant effects on the environment”.

The Council could either apply to the Board for a material alteration at a cost of €30,000 with updated environmental assessments, make a fresh application or revert to the original scheme in its entirety.

It was the opinion of RPS that all three options were ‘doomed’.

City Council Senior Planner Carmel Kilcoyne explained that if a development led to the permanent loss of an Annex 1 habitat, it could only proceed under the most recent laws if it met three tests – the first that there were no alternatives, the second if there was a risk to human life and the third if compensatory measures were provided from within the habitat.
This is a preview only. For full details of the scheme and the issues surrounding it, see this week’s Galway City Tribune. Buy a digital edition of this week’s paper here, or download the app for Android or iPhone.