The Galway City Council’s Planning Strategic Policy Committee has rejected a revised version of the Small Crane Enhancement Scheme - a decision which has been welcomed by local residents.
The proposed regeneration scheme for the Small Crane area, known as The West, may have cost up to €3.7 million but was opposed by local residents and the majority of traders in the immediate vicinity.
The PSPC meeting, held recently in City Hall, was attended by Cllr Donal Lyons (chair ), Mayor Pádraig Conneely, Cllr Colette Connolly, Cllr Michael Crowe, Cllr Terry O’Flaherty, Derrick Hambleton (An Taisce ), and Sabina Higgins (Galway Community Forum ).
The meeting was addressed by a representative of the West Residents’ Association. She said residents opposed the scheme as they feel the proposed contemporary textured paving stones and planters would be a threat to the area’s “visual integrity”.
They also opposed the plan to pedestrianise the Small Crane square, arguing that would force 185 extra cars down two narrow residential streets every weekday morning and afternoon - in reference to cars bringing pupils to and from the area’s two schools, as well as people driving into town.
Locals also felt the plan is out of keeping with the residential nature and the scale of the area and would lead to increased noise and outdoor drinking after hours.
However it is understood that the council’s director of services Thomas Connell said that the scheme had been revised as much as it could and he can be, and he proposed to present it to the full Council for a final vote despite the PSPC’s unanimous verdict.
After the meeting, the WRA representative said it would be peculiar for the council to vote in a scheme which its own PSPC rejected.
“The future of the West is a test case for democracy in Galway,’ she said. “There are at least 10 people closely connected with every address in the West. That means about 1,000 votes in the upcoming election. Voters all over the city will be watching carefully to see whether the councillors are going to act for the people they have been elected to represent.”
