CITY TRIBUNE
One third of submissions on new Cross-City Bus Link were negative
The proposed new urban traffic plan – aimed at facilitating two major bus links across the city – could end up putting traffic around in circles and going nowhere, a former mayor claimed this week.
Cllr Donal Lyons (Ind) told a City Council meeting that he had concerns over major changes proposed for vehicular traffic in the city – without the proposed N6 Galway City Ring Road being in place.
BY FRANCIS FARRAGHER AND DENISE McNAMARA
“If we have no Ring Road, what will take the traffic? We are looking at major changes in traffic-flow in places like the Salmon Weir Bridge and College Road with one-way systems.
“Even to access City Hall or going to the Sportsground for the rugby matches will be impacted upon. We’ll just end up sending the traffic around in circles, going nowhere.
“I am not convinced that these proposals [the Cross City Link and the Dublin Road Bus Corridor] will work, without the Ring Road,” said Cllr Lyons.
According to Cllr Owen Hanley (Social Democrats), the City Council was not moving quickly enough to bring about a modal switch in terms of transport usage across the city.
Cllr John Connolly (FF) said that there were real concerns among communities that the Council’s transport strategy was not progressing at a sufficient pace to indicate real change was taking place.
Mayor Colette Connolly (Ind), said that as regards the Dublin Road Bus Corridor, they were only at stage 2 of what was a 7-stage project.
Senior City Council Engineer, Uinsinn Finn, said that each of the projects put forward stood on its own merits but that all of them fitted into the overall Galway Transportation Strategy.
He also said that there had been agreement between the Saolta Hospital Group and the NTA (National Transport Authority) on the proposed bus route through the grounds of the hospital grounds (UHG).
Replying to queries about the Dublin Road Bus Corridor and the location of the new graveyard on a green area (just before the Connacht Hotel as one leaves the city), he said that he envisaged no problems with this.
“There is good public transport available while the site [new cemetery] is also in close proximity to the city centre,” said Mr Finn.
Meanwhile, almost one third of people who made submissions to the Council on the proposed Cross-City Link bus route were negative towards the project in the first stage of consultation.
In an update to councillors on the public transport and cycling priority corridor from NUIG to the Sportsground, 14 per cent were very negative while 15 per cent were classed as negative.
The largest percentage of submissions were neutral at 34 per cent, while 11 per cent were categorised as mixed.
Just eight per cent were ‘very positive’, and 18 per cent said to be ‘positive’.
A total of 93 submissions were made via the virtual room or email submission to the City Council. A total of 36 stakeholders out of 130 contacted – such as taxi companies, car park operators and businesses directly impacted – took part in a virtual briefing. A further 75 attended a Galway Chamber of Commerce event.
There are two more landowners yet to be contacted, with 21 landowners having had some form of engagement.
The main theme of the queries or submissions were concerns over loss of parking, access for areas such as College Road, Woodquay and Corrib Terrace and the impact of displaced traffic as well as support for greater priority for buses and cyclists.
The east-west priority corridor will see non-essential private traffic restricted or removed in the core part of the city centre in order to encourage more people out of their cars due to certainty of frequency and journey time reliability of public transport.
The next stage involves the preparation of the Environmental Impact Assessment and a Natura Impact Statement, which begins this month and will likely take six months.
Once these reports are concluded and the planning route confirmed the application for consent will then be submitted to An Bord Pleanála in parallel with the Compulsory Purchase application in the final quarter of 2021.
The ‘emerging preferred scheme’ involves two bus lanes over the Salmon Weir Bridge, Eglinton Street, Williamsgate Street. Eyre Square east and north and Forster Street will be restricted to public transport, cycling and taxis at peak times, while College Road will be limited to public transport, taxi and local access only, with no through-traffic – except for buses – permitted to the western end of Forster Street.
Forster Street, Eyre Square East, Prospect Hill and Bóthar Uí hEithir will become two-way traffic routes.
It is estimated that the project could be completed by 2026.
Councillor Mike Cubbard questioned why there were two landowners still to be questioned.
“There’s 29 per cent negative and very negative. Is there a common theme there to work on? It’s very hard to bring people with you when a third are against it,” he said.
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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