Fire Station set to be sold once new site is found

Date Published: 29-Dec-2011

BY ENDA CUNNINGHAM

A site for a new €7 million state-of-the-art fire station for the city will be identified next year, while the existing base on Fr Griffin Road is likely to be sold off, the Galway City Tribune has learned.

Galway County Council – which has responsibility for fire services in the city – is treating the search with “urgency”.

In order to raise funds for the new fire station, it is highly likely that the current station in the Claddagh will be sold.

Director of Services for Emergency Services Eugene Cummins told the Galway City Tribune: “The site [Fr Griffin Road] is too small, and as the city and county continue to grow it will be necessary at some stage to move to a larger site to keep all the vehicles and meet the needs of a modern, growing city.

“We will be looking at all of Galway City and there is lots to be considered – we will be looking at all developments in terms of proposed and existing roads, traffic flows, junction layouts, infrastructure, and also the fact that as well as 36 full-time firefighters, Galway City has 12 retained firefighters, so obviously that would have to be taken into account.

“It’s all about location, location, location. We hope to identify a site next year and progress the Part VIII [planning application], and then make the case to the Department.

“The cost of any new facility would be very large, and Fr Griffin Road is a very valuable and desirable site, so we will consider how we might use that. The preference would be to realise the value of that site,” said Mr Cummins. 

The existing station was built in 1956 at a cost of £32,500.

For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.