CITY TRIBUNE
Galway GAA resurrects floodlights plan for Pearse Stadium
The GAA has resurrected hugely controversial plans to install floodlights at Pearse Stadium.
Planning permission is due to expire next month for the erection of three 30.5 metre and two 36.5 metre high columns – each with between 33 and 40 lighting fixtures – at the stadium.
However, the Galway County Board of the GAA has now told the City Council that it will begin work in 2021.
The GAA has applied to the Council for a five-year Extension of Duration of the planning permission.
Permissions, as a general rule, expire after a period of five years from approval – the lights were given the go-ahead by An Bord Pleanála at the end of December 2014.
However, the GAA said that financial commitments elsewhere in Galway, the economic crash and downturn in attendances meant the plan for the lights had not gone ahead.
A commencement date of February 2021 has been indicated to the Council, with a completion date three months later.
“Due to the extensive programme of works being carried out for ground developments to other GAA stadiums throughout Galway, i.e. Loughgeorge, Tuam, etc, by Galway GAA, the development has not fallen within the financial budget and financial programme of works in order to enable the works to be carried out.
“Also due to the recession and the downturn in the economic climate, attendances at fixtures across the county and country had deplenished and as such, and to date, it was not a viable venture to commence.
“However, as other development works are being completed and with the upturn in the economy, we are confident that the proposed development will fall within the programme of works for the year commencing January 2021.
“Although we do envisage that the development will be completed before 2022, we are requesting the maximum extension period of five years,” the GAA told the Council.
In August 2014, the City Council approved the plans despite concerns expressed in nearly 100 objections from locals and residents’ groups that the lights would seriously harm the residential amenity in the area.
That decision was subsequently the subject of seven appeals –submitted by the Claddagh Residents’ Association, two from the Glenard Residents’ Association and on behalf of Rockbarton residents, while individual appeals were lodged ‘care of’ three other residents.
Concerns were raised over the impact the noise and lights would have on nearby homes, illegal parking, health & safety and traffic congestion.
One residents’ association argued that the lights would require an unrealistic and therefore unworkable regime to mitigate adverse impacts, particularly having regard to the history of unauthorised development at the Stadium.
An Bord Pleanála spent four months considering the appeals, and ruled that the lights ‘would not seriously injure the amenities of the area or of property in the vicinity, would not be prejudicial to public health, and would be acceptable in terms of traffic safety and convenience’.
However, they ruled that the lights can only be used on a maximum of 12 occasions between October 1 and March 31 in any one calendar year.
“They use shall be solely for the facilitation of match playing and shall not be used for training, concerts or any other recreational activity,” the Board added.
The lights were not to be used after 10pm, and restrictions have been placed on the level of illumination allowable. The middle mast on the Dr Mannix Road side must be demountable and removed from the site before April 30 and not erected before October 1 each year.
The Board ordered that the use of the floodlights must also be logged and a report submitted to the Council by April 30 each year – in the event of a dispute, the log must be made available to the Council for public inspection within one month of request.
The Council is due to make a decision on the Extension of Duration application in early January.
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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