Galway councils don’t practice what they preach

Two bodies tasked with encouraging large Galway employers to devise workplace travel plans for workers, don’t practice what they preach.

Galway City Council and Galway County Council have both admitted that they do not have workplace travel plans or mobility management plans in place.

This is despite the fact that two local authorities have been emphasising the importance of workplace travel plans and mobility plans in policy documents since 2005.

The two councils employ up to 900 workers in the city, at County Hall, City Hall and other locations, who contribute to daily traffic congestion.

Developing workplace plans have formed the basis of both councils’ transportation strategy and has been mentioned in the Galway Metropolitan Smarter Travel Area Action Plan, Galway City Development Plan as well as the Galway Transportation Unit’s Business Plan.

Workplace travel plans encourage workers to change travel behaviour and achieve more efficient use of the transport network. It includes measures to promote walking, cycling, public transport, car-pooling, the use of technology instead of travelling to work, and flexible working hours.

The Smarter Travel Plan, developed jointly by both councils, commits to delivering, “workplace travel plans at all organisations with over 100 employees in the Galway Metropolitan Smarter Travel Area”.

This commitment would include both councils. “The Councils are lacking credibility because of their failure to lead by example. If local authorities, who are significant employers with hundreds of staff, cannot devise their own workplace travel plans, then they are lacking in credibility when it comes to persuading other large organisations to do the same,” said a spokesperson for Cosain, the local pedestrian advocacy group.

Cosain added: “If the two city-based local authorities want to show the rest of us how it’s done, perhaps they could start by developing and implementing a mobility management plan for their own staff.

“They could then use their own plan as a template for other large employers in the city, and perhaps they could even use the acquired expertise to develop school travel plans as well. If they want credibility in this regard, a good start would be to lead by example.”

The City Council, in correspondence with the group, blamed budget cutbacks for not delivering the plans.

“There was a team set up with this specific remit. However, due to staff cuts this team was severely impacted. We are working on appointing new personnel to this team to get the process moving again.

“There is ongoing work being undertaken by different departments to encourage staff to change their travel behaviour.”

The Council says it has a staff bike scheme and has, with An Taisce, provided training for staff on cycling.