CITY TRIBUNE
Footfall in Galway city centre up on last year, while shoppers also buying local online
While footfall is well up on last year, city retailers experiencing the highest levels of trade are those with easily navigated websites.
Punters are switching in their droves to online shopping locally to avail of bargains by ‘click and collect’ to avoid Brexit customs charges and delays in deliveries.
Footfall figures for Week 49 of this year were under 245,000 – up one quarter compared to the same week of 2020 when it was over 195,000.
For Week 50, the footfall was even higher at 257,000, which was a marginal six per cent jump on the same week last year. The numbers descending on the town centre were likely affected by the warnings to stay at home during Storm Barra, so could have been even higher were it not for the adverse weather.
Footfall figures are calculated by tracking the number of visitors based on the wifi on their mobile phone, at various points in the city and does not count people without mobile phones, or people whose wifi is not turned on, which means the figures are not definitive but do give an indication of trends.
And it’s a trend reported by local retailers and hospitality traders to the Galway Chamber of Commerce CEO Kenny Deery.
“In general, any of the shops which had a decent online capacity have been doing well. Those with hampers, food boxes and cheese boxes were all selling well online with people coming into town to collect them as they worry about delays in shipping,” he revealed.
“People are ordering online and going in and collecting what they bough instead of going from shop to shop browsing. But the hope is once they do go in to collect, they will walk around and buy something else.”
Department store owner Anthony Ryan says trade has been “quite buoyant” for December so far and well up on 2019 before Covid turned the regular shopping environment upside down.
“People are shopping earlier. Black Friday is a major event now, it was a very busy weekend, it’s completely changed the way people shop and it’s to the consumers’ benefit as they are getting discounts a lot earlier,” he reported.
“Last year the shops were closed in November and two weeks in December so there was a big bounce back in December, but this year is better. People aren’t cautious but are well managed, they’re observing all protocols like wearing the masks, sanitising, social distancing but they’re happy to get out and be out.”
Homeware has continued to be very strong throughout the pandemic but menswear is having a real resurgence as more people opt to gift from the family-run local retailer. The company’s online shop has experienced “extraordinary” growth in the last two years.
“We have a fully integrated website where we have even our sales stock available. The mantra to shop local is having an effect in that people of Tuam are shopping in Tuam and people in Loughrea are shopping in Loughrea but we’re also getting a lot of customers from Dublin in particular who are coming to Galway for a staycation and are shopping here.”
Mr Deery stressed the fact that Galway is one of the strictest places in Ireland with the Covid hospitality regulations should serve to reassure members of the public about their safety when they are out and about here.
“It’s a great testament to businesses in the city. I’m from Mayo and it’s a little more lacklustre. One restaurant I went to asked for ID, the vaccine passport and did a temperature check. I said wow – I feel this is very safe and comfortable.”
While most Christmas parties have been cancelled, restaurants and pubs are reporting high occupancy as people are booking smaller tables for seasonal gatherings. High Covid infection rates mean a high level of cancellations, but these are being quickly booked up again.
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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