CITY TRIBUNE
Nearly 200 complaints to Galway City Council about potholes
Two pedestrians were injured when they accidentally stepped into potholes – they were among 190 complaints about potholes lodged with Galway City Council last year.
Details of the incidents were released to the Galway City Tribune following a Freedom of Information request.
One woman’s foot got stuck in a small pothole on the public road just off the footpath outside Hughes’ Opticians in Woodquay.
“She fell over hurting her ankle, leg and hip and also stinging her hands,” according to an official complaint.
Another woman reportedly damaged her ankle when stepping out of her car in front of the bottle banks at Westside Shopping Centre. She advised the local authority to make it safe “as soon as possible”.
The incidents – last January and August – were among the 190 official complaints logged with Galway City Council in 2018, which related to potholed roads.
Details of the incidents, made over the phone and by email to Customer Services at City Hall, or through the website Fixyourstreet.com, were released to the Galway City Tribune.
A concerned parent reported a child’s injury due to potholes at the rear of homes at St James’ Road in Mervue. The complainant reported how a boy “had a bad fall off his bike due to a pothole and he cut all his face and legs”. This was their third time reporting the potholes in Mervue – but the problem was getting worse.
“I also have two other kids who play out here and got bikes for Christmas but as I said before it is a health hazard and it’s only a matter of time before there is a serious accident,” the Council was warned.
Another complainant reported sustaining a twisted ankle “several times” in a large pothole at a kerb in Hollygrove, Renmore.
The vast majority of the reports of potholes were logged by motorists – many lodged complaints, while others were just alerting the Council to the damaged roads.
A complaint was lodged about the state of Rahoon Road near Buaile Beag National School. “I use this road on a daily basis accessing local sports facilities and doing a school run twice daily. In addition to local traffic there is a high volume of traffic using this road as an alternative route towards the city. The road has become a series of bumps and hollows. At low speed it would be easy to lose control of a car with a risk of injury to road users. There is also risk of damage to vehicles,” the complaint read.
Several residents’ associations contacted the Council about the state of the roads throughout the course of 2018.
Cherry Park Residents’ Association, Westbrook Residents’ Association and Cashel Mara Residents’ Association all made representations about repairs needed to roads while Chairperson of Castlegar Residents’ Association complained of potholes along Village Road in Castlegar.
There were also complaints about potholes near Castlegar primary school in Ballindooley, linking the N17 with the N84.
One motorist, whose tyre burst in Ballindooley, informed the Council of “gaping craters” that needed to be filled.
A separate complaint about the same road reported about a series of potholes and how vehicles “have to swerve across the road to avoid them causing a traffic hazard.” Cars were also said to be “swerving to avoid” a pothole outside Kelehan’s Pub in Bushypark.
Motorists were also “swerving onto the wrong side of the road” to avoid damaging their cars in potholes at the entrance to the Fionnuisce estate in Doughiska.
“Especially the potholes on the bend as drivers have to drive on the wrong side of the road coming around the bend to avoid the potholes and every day there is almost an accident at this location,” the complaint warned.
Potholes in Beach Drive and Beach Avenue in Renmore were described as “massive” and “dangerous” by one complainant.
One complaint referred to a “bump of tar” along the Headford Road, near the pedestrian lights at Tesco, that needs to be “flattened down” because “cyclists could be injured it’s so high”.
In some instances, at various points across the city, there were repeat complaints, with people claiming that potholes that had been filled previously had since returned.
An undertaker and a driving school are among the local businesses who have made official complaints about potholed city roads last year.
A local disability charity has also complained about the threat potholes poses to its service users.
Creaven Driving School, based in Corrandulla, complained to Galway City Council about potholes at Clybaun Road and Circular Road.
A driving instructor with the school claimed that one of his student’s tyres “had a blowout” during a driving test last November, which had to be cancelled. The pothole in question had been filled-in numerous times before, but “when it rains it is not visible” and “it is very dangerous”. The student had to re-sit the driving test, and the car was damaged.
O’Flaherty’s Funeral Parlour complained to the City Council about potholes on Munster Avenue.
Last November, after previous requests for potholes to be filled were not acted on, O’Flaherty’s queried whether legally it could privately fill potholes outside the funeral parlour. The complaint lodged with the local authority noted that potholes were “a danger to people attending funerals”.
Meanwhile, staff at Ability West, a charity that works for people with intellectual disability, complained to the Council about a “considerable dangerous pothole” on Snipe Avenue in Newcastle, which had the potential to cause damage to cars and busses.
“I would also like to point out that we have a number of service users that are visually impaired and could easily slip, trip and fall due to the numerous potholes. This needs to be addressed as soon as possible to avoid any injuries or damage,” the complaint read.
The gripes about potholes were among 190 logged with the local authority last year, according to documents released to Galway City Tribune under Freedom of Information (FOI).
Other businesses and customers of businesses alerted Council staff to potholes in certain areas in 2018.
Customers complained of potholes “the size of a crater” outside of McD’s Christmas Shop in Ballybane last December; while there were also reports of potholes outside the Western Hotel on Prospect Hill, Des Kavanagh Electrical on Clybaun Road and outside Kennedy and Fitzgerald Solicitors on O’Brien’s Bridge. There were several complaints about the state of the roads within Liosban Industrial Estate, which was referred by one complainant as a “dirt track that passes for a street”; Ballybane Industrial Estate and along the dual carriageway leading to Galway Racecourse in Ballybrit.
Other areas featuring in the complaints logged included Taylor’s Hill/Maunsells Road junction; Tuam Road; Glenview Drive in Riverside; Raleigh Row/Palmyra Avenue; Distillery Road; Tonabrucky Cross; Wellpark; Clybaun Road; Nuns’ Island, Ballybrit Court; Rosshill Road; Whitestrand Road; on the N6 outside Windsor Motors; outside Pearce Stadium in Salthill; Monivea Road; Knocknacarra Park; Clareview Park; Lurgan Park; Seacrest; Castlelawn Heights; Dyke Road; Monument Road; Monksfield Avenue; Bóthar an Chóiste; Lenaboy Avenue; Monalee Heights; at Dangan; Cappagh Road and elsewhere.
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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