Fears have arisen that the Galway-Barna Greenway will receive the least attention and priority among the various Greenway routes and cycle lanes planned for the Galway region.
The concerns have been flagged by the Green Party’s Galway City West councillor, Niall Murphy, and follows last Monday’s Galway City Council meeting where proposals for a call for a temporary cycle lane to be put in place under Covid regulations was again refused by the executive.
Cllr Murphy said the Galway-Barna Greenway could see a permanent cycle lane for Salthill become a reality, but he is concerned that this Greenway cloud loses priority, given City Hall only has a limited number of staff who can work on the issue.
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“It is great that so many cycling projects are underway,” he said. “but we need to continue to push for progress on the Barna Greenway. Salthill Prom is an iconic city location and we cannot continue to defer the job of making it cyclist-friendly.”
Plans for cycle lanes
The Galway Transport Strategy plans include several cycle lanes across the city. Separate to the GTS routes are the Greenways planned for Galway-Clifden and Galway-Dublin, and the sections of those routes within Galway city will serve both tourists and commuters.
The City Council Service Delivery Plan for 2021 includes provision for design work on the Galway-Barna Greenway which would include a cycle lane along Salthill Prom. This will require planning permission and public consultation to allow for changes to kerbing and bus stops.
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“The council has a limited set of people and the Barna route is currently in the queue behind the GTS routes and the Galway-Dublin Greenway and the Galway-Clifden Greenway,” said Cllr Murphy. “So does this mean that the route through Salthill to Barna will have to wait a long time?”
Cllr Murphy said he will be calling on the Minister for Transport, Green Party leader Eamon Ryan, to provide for more engineering staff so the Barna Greenway project “does not have to wait in the queue”.
