CITY TRIBUNE
€2m a year to keep city spick and span
A report on litter and illegal dumping carried out by Galway City Council has revealed that it is costing the local authority €2 million a year to keep the city clean.
The problem of illegal dumping was highlighted as a significant drain on resources with the Council having to respond to 1,069 complaints in relation to waste pollution last year – 904 of which were as a result of illegal dumping.
A meeting of the Council’s Strategic Policy Committee (SPC) on Environment, Recreation and Amenity was told how, “Galway has always been to the forefront of waste management” – having been the first city in Ireland to introduce segregated bins.
However, Senior Engineer with the Council, Joe Tansey, said that there was a “continuing and ongoing problem with illegal dumping”.
“There is no end to the ingenuity people will go to illegally dump waste – we have seen abandoned cars stuffed with waste.
“The Spanish Arch and Merlin Woods – these are ongoing and recurring locations,” said Mr Tansey.
According to Mr Tansey, the biggest strain on the Council’s pocket is the collection of bins and despite repeated calls for an increased number of bins around the city, he said that this would not solve the problem.
“The fact of the presence of a bin does not make illegal dumping acceptable. With cans at the Spanish Arch, it is as easy to bring them away as it is to bring them there.
“We have to be real – we have limited resources and the emptying of bins takes a huge amount of resources.
“It is not fair that the City Council should be targeted when it should be the people who illegally dump,” exclaimed Mr Tansey.
It was explained to members of the SPC that when a complaint is received, it is logged and when personnel are available, City Hall will dispatch them to the location of the dumping.
Following this, Council workers will clean the area and will go through any materials found to try ascertain who the illegal dumper might have been.
This is both a dangerous and unpleasant job with needles having been found on a number of occasions by workers.
Mr Tansey believed that while this was necessary to maintain the appearance of the city, it was leading people to believe that they could get away with dumping their waste where they choose.
“The person that is dumping material is finding that the City Council is removing and disposing of it – costing nothing to that person,” he said.
Shifting attention to the City Centre, Mr Tansey said that people would be shocked to see the “disgusting” state that the Council’s team find when they go out on to the streets at 5am every morning.
“We have people rostered in the city every morning at 5am. During peak tourist season, our lads will work until 11pm at night.
“In 2017, we will spend €1.889million on waste – that is a staggering amount of money when a lot more could be spent on other resources if people didn’t have to be cleaned up after.
“In the first instance, the public have the onus to dispose of litter properly,” he said.
The report highlights a recent development of dumping black bags on road sides in residential estates – bags that appear to contain grass cuttings on initial inspection but contain household rubbish.
There is an agreement with several residents’ associations whereby locals will cut small common areas and the Council will collect the cuttings.
Cllr Colette Connolly said that this is something the City Council must ensure is not abused.
“When Council workers go out to collect the grass, it goes in black bags with no marking on the bags.
“Residents are only waiting on the bags to start dumping waste – residents’ associations should be supplied with Galway City Council bags,” she said.
Chair of the SPC, Cllr Terry O’Flaherty, praised the diligent work of the street cleaners and said that the work they do is “absolutely fantastic”.
“They are dedicated, turn up on time and they have a very dirty city to face in the morning.
“A name and shame policy is needed,” she said.
Cllr Donal Lyons, said it would be remiss not to compliment the great work that the Council’s street team do and added that the vast amounts spent on it shows the commitment of City Council to keeping the streets clean.
Cllr Lyons backed calls to “name and shame” illegal dumpers – given the high cost their actions inflict on City Council.
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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