CITY TRIBUNE
Labour combs city in search for successor to Cameron
The Labour Party is combing Galway City in search of suitable candidates to contest the 2019 local elections.
Party veteran Billy Cameron, who served three terms on Galway City Council, has conceded he will not be seeking re-election – this has sparked a hunt for someone who might be capable of holding his seat in the City Central ward.
Labour also needs to find a candidate to contest in the City East ward, a former stronghold where voters deserted the party in droves at the last local election.
In 2009, Labour was the dominant force on Galway City Council with five out of the 15 elected members (Billy Cameron, Colette Connolly, Tom Costello, Derek Nolan and Niall McNelis).
At the following local election Labour was almost wiped-out and reduced to just two City Councillors, despite the overall number of elected members increasing by three to 18. Only Cameron and McNelis survived the wrath of the electorate in 2014 when Labour was making unpopular decisions nationally in a coalition government with Fine Gael.
Galway West TD Derek Nolan, who topped the poll in the 2011 general election, Labour’s best, took the seat won and held for years by Michael D Higgins, but he subsequently lost as the tide went out in 2016, when the party suffered its worst ever election result since its foundation in 1912.
Party sources have confirmed that a number of potential candidates capable of filling Cllr Cameron’s boots will be ‘sounded out’ in the coming weeks.
Among the names being mentioned as possible candidates are Ger Bane, a teacher at Galway Community College in Moneenageisha, who is involved with Corrib Rangers; Páraic Breathnach, the director of Galway Arts Centre; and Shane Lennon, volunteer and founder of Manuela Riedo Foundation.
Shantalla-based John McDonagh polled just 4% of the first preferences vote in 2014, when Labour had a three-candidate strategy that backfired and sitting Councillor Collette Connolly lost her seat.
Councillor Connolly subsequently left Labour and was co-opted again onto the City Council when her sister Catherine (also former Labour) vacated her seat after being elected to the Dáil in 2016. Collette won’t be flying the Labour flag next time out, and McDonagh could make a case to be ‘given another go’.
Another possible candidate is Pat Hardiman, a popular taxi man who is well known through is connections in Liam Mellows Hurling Club.
Possible candidates in the East Ward, where the party once held two Council seats, aren’t as plentiful.
Tom Costello retired and did not contest the last time out while Nuala Nolan, who was co-opted to her namesake Derek Nolan’s seat, lost out. One potential candidate who may be approached is Phil Grealish, who is involved with St Columba’s Credit Union and SCULL Enterprises.
Billy Cameron, a postmaster in Newcastle for almost two decades, was first elected in 2004, and became deputy mayor of the city two years later.
He topped the poll and was elected on the first count in 2009 and retained his seat despite the Labour tide going out in 2014.
Efforts to persuade him to remain on and go again have proved fruitless, and party sources fear that unless a high-profile candidate is sourced soon, the likes of Social Democrats member Niall Ó Tuathail, and the Green Party’s Colm Duffy, could get a foothold in the traditionally left of centre City Central Ward, which includes Westside, Shantalla, Bushypark and Newcastle.
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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