CITY TRIBUNE
Traffic levels levels in Galway have surpassed pre-pandemic levels
If you are killed complaining about the traffic in Galway, you have every reason to.
The new Galway Economic Monitor shows that traffic volumes on the Galway road network surpassed pre-pandemic levels this year, reaching a new high of 113,414 journeys per day in March.
This was over 6,000 more journeys than the 2019 high of 107,310 journeys and over 10,000 more journeys than the 2022 high of 102,755 journeys.
An average daily traffic count of 92,942 journeys was recorded on seven main thoroughfares in Galway in April 2023, an 8% hike compared to the same period of 2022.
At the same time, we were using public transport a lot more.
A total of 4.2 million journeys were undertaken by bus and rail in the last three months of 2022, a 15% increase on the previous quarter. This growth of 549,500 trips was driven by an expansion of 345,000 bus journeys (up 18.5%) and 204,500 rail journeys (up 11.5%). It’s back up to 93% of the pre-pandemic level of 4.49 million journeys in the same quarter of 2019.
The big surge in traffic and public transport usage is related to the increase in the number of people working in the region. Total employment in the West – Galway, Mayo and Roscommon – reached a new peak in the final three months of last year and a seven-year high. The number of employed residents in the region increased to 225,700 – this was up 3.9% on the previous quarter and represented a jump of 11,848 (+5.5%) on the same period the previous year.
With more people getting jobs here, the pressure on housing has intensified. The report serves as a stark reminder how dire the housing situation remains, with just 896 “housing commencements” for the whole of 2022 – a decline of nearly 28%.
“This is likely a reflection of soaring construction price inflation and limited affordability amongst prospective buyers,” the report reflects.
Having reached a low between July and September, construction began on almost 200 new houses in the final quarter, a nearly 70% increase.
The Galway Economic Monitor funded by the Galway Chamber of Commerce and compiled by Grant Thornton will be a twice-yearly publication which will bring together publicly available data in a user-friendly format that can be used by investors as well as a tool to measure performance across a range of different markers.
Chamber CEO Kenny Deery said the cost – €20,000 for the first year – would be worth it for the benefits the report would bring.
“Up to now you could ask ten people what are the housing figures, the traffic volumes, the economic activity around the port and you would get varying answers as there was no standard set of figures in a single report which could be compared over time to see if trends emerged,” he explained.
“This way we can look at progress – or lack of it – in specific areas. Certainly, in our messaging it allows us to lobby far more effectively because we can make arguments based on concrete data.
“Yes, the data is publicly available but who knows how to navigate it, who knows where it is. This report comes from a multitude of sources. A significant amount of work went into both from the Chamber and Grant Thornton.”
Each report will look at different aspects of economic data and will contain opinion pieces based on the data collated. The next one will contain bank card spending to ascertain spending patterns in Galway.
“It’s a really useful document if an investor was potentially looking to come to Galway. For the first time we have a cohesive to look at how things stand, how they are progressing. It will allow us to hold the local authority much more to account if we’re not seeing figural improvements
Aengus Burns, partner with Grant Thornton and former president of the Galway Chamber, said by tracking statistics over a period of time it was much easier to identify trends.
“I think it’s a very useful tool for the chamber members, it’s for debate and discourse which can be distracted by inappropriate facts and figures. This is something that helps us see things as they happen and in the right context over a period of time we can see trends.”
He was particularly struck by the seven-year peak in employment – up 9% in 2022 for the three counties, which was a remarkable increase.
There could be an argument that Galway had full employment as the number of people on the Live Register would never be zero. There remained 8,785 people on the Live Register in March, a decline of 3.8% on February.
The Galway Economic Monitor was launched at the inaugural West in the Capital – a networking event between the Galway Chamber and Dublin business people, which was attended by Galway Oireachtas members as well as key civil servants.
The inaugural edition is available on the Galway Chamber website
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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