CITY TRIBUNE
Cribbing at Christmas as Colette and Crowe clash
Bradley Bytes – a sort of political column with Dara Bradley – Fianna Fáil City Councillors Mike Crowe, Peter Keane and John Connolly didn’t hang around to hear the Mayor of Galway’s Christmas well wishes.
The trio were out the gap of the Veranda Lounge of the Galmont Hotel near the end of the final City Council meeting of 2021 before Colette Connolly (Ind) could bellow the words “Nollaig Shona . . . and Happy New Year” from the top table.
“Thank you for your patience” during a “very difficult year” and “trying times”, she added, to a near-empty room of councillors scrambling to get out and colleagues online on Zoom who had switched off too.
Earlier, patience had worn thin inside the rather plush replacement Council Chamber as Colette clashed with councillors, in particular MJ Crowe.
Perhaps it was just as well that Covid-19 restrictions put paid to this year’s instalment of the traditional Christmas drinks, hosted annually by the Mayor for officials and elected members.
Because there was little Christmas spirit or collegiality shown during the Council meeting and adding alcohol to that concoction could have been dangerous.
The exchanges during the meeting, sans eggnog, were pricklier than seasonal holly; the tea – as weak as water – that was served during a break in proceedings didn’t help the mood music.
A combative tone was set early on, when discussing the minutes of the previous meeting. Like conversations about religion or politics with family over Christmas dinner, it’s best to keep the minutes short and sweet. But this section dragged on last Monday, as old sores from old meetings were picked at.
The best thing about a barney that occurred between John Connolly and Colette Connolly over who’d said what at the November meeting, was that it was bilingual, as both speakers moved seamlessly between Gaeilge and Béarla. Their more linguistically challenged comrades looked on, confused: Unsure of what the two were arguing about, but knowing it must be serious because of the teacher-tone used by both.
This was a baptism of fire for the new Meetings Administrator, Ailish Rohan. She translated the Gaeilge, giving real-time subtitles, but also had to defend the accuracy of minutes.
Long story short, John Connolly got thick that a motion he’d tabled at the previous meeting about housing had been ruled out of order. Colette managed to sort of keep a lid on it until MJ chimed in. As Mike said, he was at a loss to understand why it was ruled out of order, Colette ploughed on.
“Is this a dictatorship?” Mike asked. “No, it’s not a dictatorship, it’s a democracy” said Colette trying to sound authoritative but not Putin-level authoritative.
If Colette was the dicator that MJ believed her to be, he was still brave enough to begin a sentence with, “If you want to discriminate against us . . .”
Colette barked back: “A little respect!” Mike cried out: “It works both ways!”
Colette ruled – with an iron fist – that she was moving on rather than “spend another hour on the minutes”. Mercifully, they did move on, or they’d have been there ‘til Christmas.
This is a shortened preview version of Bradley Bytes. To read more, see this week’s Galway City Tribune. You can buy a digital edition HERE.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
The new Salmon Weir pedestrian and cycle bridge will be officially opened to the public next Friday, May 26.
Work on the €10 million bridge got underway in April 2022, before the main structure was hoisted into place in early December.
A lunchtime tape-cutting ceremony will take place on Friday, as the first pedestrians and cyclists traverse the as-yet-unnamed bridge.
The Chief Executive of Galway City Council, Brendan McGrath, previously said the bridge, once opened, would remove existing conflicts between pedestrians, cyclists and traffic “as well as facilitating the Cross-City Link public transport corridor over the existing 200-year-old bridge”.
The naming of the new bridge has been under discussion by the Council’s Civic Commemorations Committee since late last year.
One name that has been in the mix for some time is that of the first woman in Europe to graduate with an engineering degree – Alice Perry.
Ms Perry, who was from Wellpark, graduated from Queen’s College Galway (now University of Galway) in 1906. The university’s engineering building is named in her honour.
The bridge was built by Jons Civil Engineering firm in County Meath and was assembled off-site before being transported to Galway. Funding for the project was provided in full by the National Transport Authority and the European Regional Development Fund.
(Photo: Sheila Gallagher captured the city’s new pedestrian footbridge being raised on the south side of the Salmon Weir Bridge in December. It will officially open next Friday, May 26).
From the Galway City Tribune – Minister of State for Local Government and Planning, Kieran O’Donnell was labelled a “disgrace” for overturning councillors’ decisions to rezone land in the new City Development Plan.
Minister O’Donnell (pictured) confirmed in a letter to Council Chief Executive Brendan McGrath last week that he was reversing 25 material alternations made by councillors to the CDP 2023-29. He made the decision on the advice of Office of Planning Regulator (OPR).
Minister O’Donnell directed that 14 land parcels that were subject to land-use zoning changes by councillors as part of the Material Alterations to the Draft CDP should be reversed.
He directed that a further 11 land parcels in the city should become “unzoned”.
The Minister found that the CDP had not been made in a manner consistent with recommendations of the OPR, which required specific changes to the plan to ensure consistency with the national planning laws and guidelines.
At last week’s Council meeting Cllr Eddie Hoare (FG) asked for clarity on the process by which councillors could rezone the lands that had been changed by the Minister’s direction.
Cllr Declan McDonnell said, “What he [Minister O’Donnell] has done is an absolute disgrace”.
And he asked: “Do we have to have another development plan meeting to deal with it?”
Both Cllrs Hoare and McDonnell wondered what would become of the lands that were rezoned or unzoned by the ministerial direction.
Mr McGrath said the Council had put forward an argument in favour of retaining the material alterations in the plan, but ultimately the Minister sided with OPR.
He said if councillors want to make alterations to the new plan, they could go through the process of making a material alteration but this was lengthy.
The Save Roscam Peninsula campaign welcomed the Minister’s decision.
In a statement to the Galway City Tribune, it said the direction would mean the Roscam village area on the Roscam Peninsula will be unzoned and a number of land parcels would revert back to agriculture/high amenity.
A spokesperson for the campaign said: “the material alterations made by city councillors following lobbying by developers continued the long-standing practice of councillors facilitating a developer-led plan rather than an evidence- and policy-based plan that meets the needs of the city.
“The Minister’s direction is an important step in restoring confidence in the planning system. It is clear from the City Council’s own evidence on future housing projections that there was no requirement to zone these lands for residential purposes in order to meet the needs of the targeted population increase up to 2029,” the spokesperson added.
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