NAMA seek permission to keep giant hole in ground

Date Published: 18-Apr-2013

BY DENISE McNAMARA

The receivers appointed to the Galway Gateway Shopping Centre on the Western Distributor Road have applied for retention for excavation work on an adjoining site which is the subject of an enforcement notice by the City Council.

The site to the north of the centre where Dunnes Stores and B&Q are anchor tenants was left abandoned when the downturn hit and the development – due to comprise a primary health care health facility, a KFC drive-through, seven more retail units, 34 apartments and parking – was never built.

The enormous hole excavated on the site has consistently filled with water. Although it had been fenced off, there was evidence of trespassers with rubbish and debris dumped there.

Galway City Council issued enforcement proceedings against the former owners, Rumbold Builders, which is part of the Moritz Group headed by Michael and Bridie Whelan, warning them on conviction for breach of planning permission they faced fines of nearly €13 million and up to two years prison.

They ordered the company to return the site to its original condition by filling in the hole and removing the unauthorised fencing in the letter issued on November 22, 2011. The site, which spans 52 acres in total, was later seized by the National Asset Management Agency, who appointed Michael Coyle and Simon Davidson as joint statutory receivers.

Last week, they applied for the retention on the 1.4 hectare site for the excavation works undertaken and the two-metre high safety fencing around it.

In the application, the receivers stated a safety audit found that without controls in place, “it was highly likely that a fatality could occur on this site”.

A spokesman for the council said the application for retention is currently being considered while a decision to whether to continue with the enforcement proceedings had yet to be made.

Further phases originally planned for the site – also known as the Galway West District Centre – included 100 more apartments, a hotel, pub, restaurants, bowling alley, multiplex cinema and a car sales showroom.

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