Legal challenge against bypass plan

Opponents of the proposed new city bypass have confirmed they are taking legal action to put the brakes on building the controversial road.

The Galway N6 Action Group has written to Galway City and County Councils confirming an outline of their legal opposition to the road.

A spokesperson for the residents’ lobby group, Colman Collins, said they have “engaged serious legal people” to fight the proposed road through the courts.

“We are remaining coy about the exact nature of our opposition but we are taking legal action to object to the road and we will also be objecting to the process by which the emerging preferred route was chosen, the selection of other routes, the reasons for the old Galway City Outer Bypass were dropped and other reason,” he said.

Mr Collins said the legal challenge would at the very least result in the process being “protracted”.

He confirmed the two Councils have been formally alerted to plans to legally challenge the route, which will result in 41 homes being knocked and hundreds more impacted.

He said Transport Minister Pascal Donohue was also made aware of the challenge at a meeting with representatives of Galway N6 Action Group last week in Dáil Éireann.

The delegation impressed on the Minster the view that residents along the route from Castlegar to Barna are totally opposed to the new road.

Mr Collins said the Minister was shown pictures of the route and he appeared “shocked” by the impact it would have on 30 of the 41 homes that would be knocked.

For more on this story, see this week’s Galway City Tribune