CITY TRIBUNE
Galway City Council calls time on Wetherspoon pub hours
From the Galway City Tribune – The local authority has placed restrictions on the opening hours of the new Wetherspoon pub and restaurant on Eglinton Street, for which it has given the green light.
The planning authority imposed a condition that the premises cannot operate outside the hours of 7am to 11.30pm on Mondays to Thursdays; 7am to 12.30am Fridays and Saturdays and 7am to 11pm on Sundays.
An archaeologist must also be employed on site to carry out a detailed survey of the buildings and complete test excavations because of the potential for finds – if anything of note is uncovered, work must be halted and the National Monuments Service consulted.
The British pub chain, headed by pro-Brexit campaigner Tim Martin, applied for planning permission last July to carry out a €2.5 million overhaul of the former Carbon nightclub to create ‘The Three Red Sails’ – a bar and restaurant over two floors.
Following concerns raised by the Council – including one that the frontage did not include any bilingual signage, as is planning policy for the city centre – the company changed the proposed signage to ‘Na Trí Seolta Dearga’.
An architect’s impression of how the front of the Eglinton Street pub would look with the Irish signage.
The plans, which are expected to take a minimum of six months to complete, have now been approved by the Council, with a total of 23 stipulations attached – the majority of which are general conditions.
As well as the detailed archaeological monitoring and surveys, and restrictions on opening hours, the Council has also ordered that the premises cannot offer a take-away service.
The Council has banned music “or any other sound for entertainment” from being amplified in or outside the premises and ordered JD Wetherspoon that “noise levels from the proposed development shall not be so loud, so continuous, so repeated, of such duration or pitch or occurring at such times as to give reasonable cause for annoyance to a person in any premises in the neighbourhood”.
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Emissions on odours must also be controlled and a suitable filtration system installed to neutralise them prior to discharge, “in order to safeguard the amenities of adjoining premises, residential amenity and the general surroundings”.
In his assessment of the planning application, Council Executive Planner Peter Staunton noted that Eglinton Street is a key access corridor under the BusConnects Cross-City Link (University Road to Dublin Road) and the Wetherspoon plan “has the potential to further enhance the public realm, both by improvements to the physical appearance of the building and by bringing vibrancy and vitality to the street”.
“The existing building has been vacant for a number of years and in this regard, the proposed development would increase the animation of the public realm in this part of the city centre, particularly in the evenings and at weekends, by providing a use that was active and attractive to pedestrians. This impact on the character and setting of the area along Eglinton Street would be generally positive.
“It is not considered that the development would not [sic] represent a threat to the residential amenities of the nearby apartments,” Mr Staunton’s report reads.
As part of the Cross-City Link plan, there will be soft and hard landscaping works along Eglinton Street, including ornamental planting and seating, natural stone pavements and cycle stands.
During the assessment period, the local authority noted that the site is located within the Galway City Zone of Archaeological Potential and said that any sub-surface works would have to be archaeologically monitored, asking the applicant to comment on the issue.
An Archaeological, Architectural and Cultural Heritage Impact Assessment was carried out on behalf of Wetherspoon and found: “Geo-referencing of the historic mapping for the area indicates that the site likely overlies the location of the town walls of Galway, and potentially overlies two to three mural towers (Lion Tower, Little Gate Tower and Agnes Tower) as well as the outer moat of the city walls.
“There is also limited potential for portions of a 17th century corner bastion to underlay the property. The entirety of the proposed development site is considered an area of archaeological potential,” the archaeological report read.
In the planning application, JD Wetherspoon said University of Galway would provide a market for it.
“It is a short 500 metres from NUIG. It’s significant to note that there are 18,605 students in the college as well, which provides a market for the proposed development.
“Because of its likely customer base and location, our clients anticipate that food sales at the premises will comprise 45-50% of total sales by value. If drinks, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic, purchased ancillary to food are taken into account, then that figure rises to 65-70%.
“Approximately 30% of business is drinks only, which means this is primarily a “sit down” type premises where customers would generally be limited to seats available within the establishment,” the company told the 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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