CITY TRIBUNE
Judge dismisses parking prosecutions due to glitch in law
Dozens of parking summonses have been either struck out or adjourned at Galway District Court due to a glitch in the legislation.
Judge Alan Mitchell gave lawyers for Galway City Council the opportunity to prove him wrong on this matter, but they were unable to do so.
“There is a potentially appalling vista, until this is rectified,” he said of this issue of legislation, which is badly affecting local councils when they attempt to prosecute.
The issue relates to pay-and-display prosecutions, brought before the court either because a person ‘over stayed their welcome’ or had no ticket displayed; this did not affect other types of parking fines, however, which went ahead as normal.
In cases where the defendant was in court, the Judge struck out their summons – although this does not stop the local authority from bringing a prosecution in the future. For those who were absent, their cases were adjourned to a date in April.
“What is important in the law is that there is some consistencies,” Judge Mitchell said.
The issue arose over the awarding of costs to the prosecutors, which the Judge said he does not allow unless there is a statutory provision for it.
Solicitor for Galway City Council, Edward Molloy, asked the Judge to reconsider.
“The court might take into account the considerable level of work involved, and the number of opportunities given to resolve the cases. It is a big effort to organise this on behalf of Galway City Council, ourselves, and the court services, to make sure it goes smoothly.”
The Judge acknowledged this, and said that while the District Court rules allowed for discretion, his view was that if it was not specifically provided for in Statute he would not award costs.
He requested a copy of the specific by-laws that the Council intended to rely on for the purpose of prosecution.
“They don’t comply with the law,” the Judge replied.
“It has to be proved under documentary evidence or printed by the Statutory office…. There is a fundamental difficulty by the Oireachtas passing the 2004 Act and having to prove under documentary evidence, which is providing difficulty for the City Council.”
Judge Mitchell allowed Mr Molloy and his colleague time to verify or dispute his point of view.
“On a previous occasion I struck-out all summonses, and I was judicially reviewed. I want to allow the City Council to engage with me that my understanding of the Road Traffic by-laws is correct. I will allow time to see if they can address this.
“When I saw the lacunae I checked, and it seems to be something that local authorities may be having difficulty with. If the law is as is, then it is not for me to award costs. I would rather not be judicially reviewed, as this would cause everything to grind to a halt.”
He explained the delay to the large number of people waiting for their cases to be heard that a previous court had struck-out all cases where the prosecution was unable to produce the relevant document they were relying on.
“The Court of Appeal, however, said that they should have been allowed time to produce it,” he said.
Mr Molloy was unable to satisfy the Judge in this regard, and he proceeded to go through the list of hundreds of names – adjourning the relevant cases of those who did not attend, and striking-out those who were there.
“They will be struck out today, but if the local authority decides or the High Court decides that I’m wrong, they may be re-issued,” Judge Mitchell said.
“This is definitely not the end of it. That’s a matter for the City Council and how it decides to deal with it.”
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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