There's a few pieces in the Galway Advertiser this week related to the GCRR
A piece by local Cllr Niall Murphy (GP)
The figures in the submission for the GCRR to An Bord Planála claim that the public transport use will increase by 28% by 2039. We have already passed that without a ring road. It is a myth that we need a ring road in order to provide public transport. What we actually need to provide public transport is more busses.
Another by Hildegarde Naughton saying the road will be funded
Another from Noel Grelish & Leo Varadkar saying "trust me bro" in relation to the development of AT & PT yet offering no evidence i.e. give us the road and I cross my heart, I'll give you some paint for a bike lane
Are there plans to widen footpaths? Or add more crossing points? Or reduce speed limits? Or make parts pedestrian only? Or remove on street parking?
I'd love to see those but my guess is its a case of build the bypass and leave everything else as it was. Hope I'm wrong though so if you have details, please share
Ah the council are baffled as to why housing applications keep getting killed by ABP
Three Government ministers are to be invited to talks with Galway City Council to work out how to develop more housing after two major schemes were rejected by An Bord Pleanála despite years of hard work by the planning department.
Its so confusing, if only there was some way to know what the problems were
The board considered the development to be piecemeal, with inadequate provision of social and physical infrastructure and excessively car-dependent.
...... if only there was sommmmme way to figure it out why they keep getting rejected
They also rejected a social housing scheme in Castlegar on the Headford Road to build three Traveller-appropriate houses and 21 apartments on a 2.2-acre field north of a van hire business, citing the lack of pedestrian, cycle and bus connections.
The poor council, I hope they figure this out
The mayor seems to understand some of it but struggles at the end
“We are totally demoralised by the whole process. You have to ask what is the point. Someone has to listen to the nonsense that is taking place.
“We are trying to increase housing supply but we are being met with ridiculous conditions and decisions by An Bord Pleanala. 68 private units and 71 social units at Keeraun denied planning permission simply because they were excessively car dependent?” she said.
“I can’t understand why planning couldn’t be granted with conditions attached, such as upgrading the footpaths, roads and so forth,” she said.
“We all appreciate that the road at Keeraun needed to be upgraded, and there were active plans in place that the upgrade would happen in tandem with housing developments.
Taking the "trust me bro" approach 🙄
At least its obvious to all at this stage, that without good links, no application will be approved. Should modify priorities a bit in the council, which is no bad thing
The Salthill-Barna greenway came up for discussion on Monday at the latest council meeting
It really is scandalous stuff.
"
They(An ABP) also rejected a social housing scheme in Castlegar on the Headford Road to build three Traveller-appropriate houses and 21 apartments on a 2.2-acre field north of a van hire business, citing the lack of pedestrian, cycle and bus connections.
How City Council planners are failing with the basics is a joke. In the paper/long version of the article Brendan McGrath CEO maintains that the Headford Road site is a 20 min to walk to Eyre Square. No way Brendan would do that walk from here
https://goo.gl/maps/SkSxro1dHitJYMjx6
might struggle to do it in 20 minutes on bike if the traffic lights on the N6 go against ya
I was shaking my head reading this yesterday. It's scary how unaware some of these, otherwise functioning adults, are.
Huge expansion on the Local Link rural bus services for this year, Galway related routes marked below
Aye, her (Higgins) lack of comprehension of the basics made it into the national rags
In relation to this comment
I can’t understand why planning couldn’t be granted with conditions attached, such as upgrading the footpaths, roads and so forth.
Its very simple, they wouldn't follow it. They would deem getting people into the houses (once built) as being a higher priority, would look for a derogation, and ABP would be obliged to provide it.
The manner in which ABP have refused these applications forces the council to prioritize the services and access first before a single house is built, which is the right way of doing it
Honestly, i don’t get why the energy expended on stopping the ring road isn’t mirrored in starting the steps you list examples of. I’m not local to Moycullen so I’ve no place talking at them, but for example Pauline O’ Reilly is. It’s my hope that people instead of throwing their hands up and saying “road’s made we failed” would say “ok, you got your road, now let’s make the space that frees up work.”
sooo no plans to improve the situation in Moycullen then.
we'll be back in 20-30 years so, proposing a bypass of the bypass I guess
O….kayyyy…doubling down……that’s your perogative I guess….
I'm not sure what exactly you're looking for here. ABP stopped the ring road. No energy expended beyond them doing their regular jobs.
Do you think there's shadow groups secretly working behind the scenes? I guess the environmental groups and the race course group are the closest and they are against it for specific reasons that aren't related to transport. There is people out there trying to campaign for some of the things mentioned but it seems to be a thankless task. GCC are completely out of touch with the needs of a modern city and completely unwilling to learn. They know what's best for us and that's what they decided was best in the 1980s (probably when some of them started the job).
I’ve said repeatedly I’m not on about any kind of “secret” group behind the scenes. I’m just grouping the various elements who have an interest in defeating the proposed roadbuilding in Galway. In this case some of those are ones concerned with liveable settlements, and I would like to see their campaigning energy used to ensure that they push for livable settlement measures (pedestrianisation, widened footpaths, all that they advocate for) irrespective of their success stopping roadbuilding.
if you’ve lost faith with our elected representatives, then the wider thing is ehy are they elected and what can you do about the electors?
They ain't elected bud. They're employees. Not sure why the politicians get all the flack for this stuff
And you're grouping random assortments of people in your head and confused as to why they haven't all banded together to achieve the aims you think they should look to achieve? I'm really lost as to what you think is going on or how you think people behave.
Curragh Line closed due to major accident. Coming from Headford there's no access beyond Clonboo, just diverted via Claregalway to Galway city, heavy traffic on narrow roads:
https://galwaybayfm.ie/galway-bay-fm-news-desk/emergency-services-attending-scene-of-an-accident-on-the-n84/
Jaysus, you got the wrong end of the stick. I don’t know where to start with that except for repeating myself, which I won’t do. Ignore.
Jaysus that ignore list is getting bigger by the day, you'll be down to talking to yourself fairly soon.
A pedestrian has died, rip
RTE news : Pedestrian dies in Galway road traffic incident
Think they're already there.
Wasn't even arguing with them. Just can't get my head around what they were on about. It would be great if everyone got together to look for those things but it would be great if everyone got together to work for lots of things that would benefit us all. As much as I'd love better footpaths in the city I'd start with HSE improvements.
Martin RAB will close at night over the coming days for works
Traffic Diversion: Monday 20th Feb through to Friday 24th Feb (19:00-06:00hrs).
• Signed Diversions will be in place.
• The roundabout will reopen during daytime hours.
• Note: for access to Galway Clinic, please follow diversion signage. Clinic opening hours will remain as normal.
The blindness to problems by some councillors is staggering
Cllr Michael Crowe (FF) described ABP’s decision for the Headford Road development as “one of the most ridiculous” planning decisions he had read in his 20 years on the Council.
“It’s typical of the nonsense that’s going on in the world. It’s discrimination against private cars,” he fumed.
As the saying goes, when you're accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression
At least others seem to understand the issue
Cllr Colette Connolly (Ind) said the board’s decisions underlined years of little investment in public transport and footpaths.
“They raise very, very significant issues,” she stressed. “I welcome the decisions on the basis we have to have sustainable development.”
Cllr Mike Cubbard (Ind) said it was a cop out to blame ABP instead of the local authority focusing on its failure to deliver essential facilities for housing development.
I know this is not traffic related
Is there any political mechanism/process to remove the Chief Executive of the City Council?
He is due to leave the position shortly, middle of the year I think. It came up before and someone mentioned it. Its also mentioned in the article below
Meanwhile, Chief Executive of Galway City Council, Brendan McGrath, is due to retire this year. It’s understood his deputy CE, Patricia Philbin will take the role in an acting capacity until an interview process is completed.
She's supposed to be more of the same so don't expect things to improve unless they hire someone out of left field. I wonder who sits on the interview panel. Skeptic in me thinks it'll be more jobs for the boys with someone getting a nice fat pay cheque while doing nothing of substance and styfling any attempts at improving things.
33 years at GCC, and no experience with any other employer showing on her LinkedIn, would indeed suggest that we shouldn't hope for much in the way of change, unfortunately. I guess an acting CEO isn't expected to be too radical, but the reminder in the same story that the County Council had an acting CEO for 9 years before the new replacement was chosen, doesn't inspire confidence.
Wasn’t she the CEO of the highly successful Galway 2020 project for at least some of its time?? 🙄🙄
You're right, I wasn't aware of that
We should put her in charge of traffic 😁
More laneway improvements around the city. Links go to GCC FB posts
Sliabh Rua, Ballybane, before and after
Cabbage Lane, Bohermore
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