CITY TRIBUNE
Three fined for felling trees in Salthill Park
Three people have been convicted and fined over the felling of trees at the back of Salthill Park last year.
Denise Colgan (58) and her brother Roy Colgan (63), both of Charnwood, Park Avenue, along with John Nolan (47), 3 The Currans, High Street, Headford – whom the Colgan’s hired to cut the trees – had all denied damaging five mature trees belonging to Galway City Council at Salthill Park on Saturday July 16, 2016, intending to damage such property or being reckless as to whether such property would be damaged, contrary to Section 2 (1) of the Criminal Damage Act 1991.
Judge Mary Fahy convicted all three of causing criminal damage to the trees, following a fully contested hearing spread over two days, at special sittings of Galway District Court.
She fined Denise Colgan €1,000 and her brother, Roy Colgan, €1,500. She directed they each pay €2,000 compensation to Galway City Council for the loss of trees.
Finding that John Nolan’s part, in cutting down the trees, was lesser than the Colgan’s, Judge Fahy convicted and fined him €500.
The first day of the hearing, which took place in October, heard evidence the Colgans told a Garda and a Council employee, who visited the site that Saturday, that they had permission to fell the trees, which they claimed acted as a magnet for antisocial behaviour near their home.
A neighbour told the hearing it was no coincidence the Colgans had asked Nolan to cut the tress on a Saturday, when they knew the Council offices would be closed and no one would be able to confirm if they had permission to cut the trees until the following Monday morning.
Detective Colm McDonagh said had great difficulty in locating the Colgans as each time he called to the house in Charnwood it was locked up. He later discovered that Denise Colgan spent most of her time in Holland and that her brother lived in Dublin. He said he interviewed John Nolan who said the Colgans led him to believe they had permission to fell the trees.
Det McDonagh said Nolan told him: “Roy Colgan is a solicitor and I thought everything was done correctly. They told me there was no issue from the Gardai to fell the trees. I was going on the Colgans word that everything was okay. They told me about public order around the trees and about stones and bottles being thrown into their property,” he said in his statement.
Det McDonagh said Nolan told him he had quoted the Colgans €3,000 to cut, chip and remove the trees from the site.
Nolan told him he had returned to the Park on the Sunday but left again after people who had come to view the fallen trees, shouted “tree-killer” and “murderer” at him.
He said he returned on the Monday to clear the site but the Council had fenced the area off by then.
The court heard in October that it had cost City Council €6,000 to clear the site.
Denise Colgan gave evidence on the second day of the hearing last week.
She explained she travelled to Holland regularly for medical treatment but that the house in Charnwood was her and her brother’s only home. She said she and her brother had been in regular contact with City Council and Gardai over the years concerning public order issues near their home. The Council had stopped replying to her correspondence.
The Council, she said, had felled rows of other trees on either side of the park in the past, but had left five trees right in front of their house and she claimed antisocial behaviour had become concentrated in that area after that.
She said she met with Superintendent Pat McHugh and Inspector Karen Maloney on June 23, 2016, and she claimed he raised the issue of the 1946 Forestry Act with them, which allowed for the felling of trees within 100 feet of a person’s property.
”He asked if we had ever thought of felling the trees ourselves. He advised us to secure a report about the trees. He informed us of our right to fell within 100 feet of our property,” Ms Colgan said.
Inspector Brendan Carroll, prosecuting, said Supt McHugh, who was present in court, would deny ever saying that.
“As he (Supt McHugh) raised the Forestry Act, we took it as an endorsement,” Ms Colgan added during cross-examination.
Roy Colgan told the hearing missiles had been thrown into their property and he had been intimidated by people who had climbed into their garden to urinate. He said he had also observed people ‘shooting up’ under the trees. He explained he had been a solicitor but had not practised since the 1980s.
In reply to his barrister, Con Crowley, Mr Colgan said he felt there had been a common objective between he, his sister and the Gardai to have the trees removed due to antisocial behaviour in the Park.
Judge Fahy observed the 1946 Forestry Act had been completely overhauled.
Mr Crowley pointed out that the Act, which allowed for the felling of trees within 100 feet of one’s property, was still in place back in July 2016 and had not been amended until last year.
Mr Nolan gave evidence he noticed the Colgan’s home was “absolutely destroyed” with egg shells from people throwing eggs when he visited the property and he noticed broken bottles and stones had been flung into the garden. He said the Colgans showed him a two-inch file of correspondence they had with City Council over the years.
He said Roy Colgan mentioned to him that he was a solicitor and he took it that everything was in order.
He agreed with his solicitor Ronan Murphy, that he had been misled by the Colgans.
Judge Fahy said that after hearing all of the evidence, claims made by the Colgans that the trees had been a magnet for antisocial behaviour and that they were under siege in their home by gangs of youths who congregated under the trees to drink, were “grossly exaggerated”.
She said they had not obtained permission from anyone to fell the trees. The trees, she said, were in a public park and were a public amenity for the benefit of the people of Salthill and the public in general.
“And I find it beyond belief that they are basically saying the Gardai gave them permission. I’m sure the Gardai would give them advice about security, but at no stage could Gardai have any authority to tell them they could fell public property,” Judge Fahy said.
Leave to appeal the convictions was granted.
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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