Junction vote deferred as hundreds object

Date Published: 04-Oct-2012

BY CIARAN TIERNEY

City officials are set to defer a vote on the controversial plans to convert the Kirwan Roundabout near the Menlo Park Hotel into a signalised junction by at least a month after receiving hundreds of individual submissions or objections by last week’s deadline.

The scale of opposition to the plans was evident in the huge number of objections received, with long-term opponent Cllr Frank Fahy (FG) estimating the figure had reached 850 prior to last Friday’s deadline.

With an overwhelming majority of City Councillors confirming opposition to the plans when contacted by this newspaper last week, the variation to the City Development Plan will not now go to a vote of the local authority on Monday next.

Many of the objections submitted to City Hall involve multiple signatures to letters from local residents’ associations in Menlo, Tirellan Heights, and the Headford Road, but, even so, the scale of opposition to the project is evident from the volume of documents received by the planning office.

“There have been hundreds of submissions on the proposed variation to the City Development Plan,” confirmed a spokesman for Galway City Council yesterday. “There are hundreds of copies of the same letter signed by individuals and our planning department has received a significant volume of documents.

“For that reason, these plans will not now be discussed until the November meeting of the City Council, because of the value we place on giving full consideration to the public consultation process.”

Cllr Fahy said the changeover of the Kirwan Roundabout was discussed at a meeting at the Pillo Hotel on Wednesday night, where all eight members of the local authority present confirmed to local businesses and residents that they would be opposing the plans.

The variation to the CDP, to allow the construction of a four set signalised junction to replace a five exit roundabout, would require a majority vote of the 15 member local authority and involve a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) of land belonging to the Menlo Park Hotel.

Environmental watchdog An Taisce have claimed that the proposed changeover would make life “much more difficult” for local residents and businesses, as well as for providers of public transport in areas such as the Tirellan, Castlelawn, and Sandyvale housing estates.

For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.