Having no parking restrictions on Inchagoill Road is a threat to the health and safety of residents and created a situation recently where an ambulance was prevented from quickly leaving the scene of an emergency.
This is the view of Máiréad Ní Chróinín, Green Party candidate for Galway City Central, who is appalled that peak-time demand for parking at University Hospital Galway and by NUI, Galway staff and students has turned Inchagoill Road “into an unofficial car-park”.
“One half of Inchagoill Road is a narrow two-lane street - so when cars are parked on both sides of the street no residents' cars can pass in or out,” said Ms Ní Chróinín. “This means some residents are virtually trapped at home.”
She said it also creates the situation where no ambulance or fire engine could access the road if there was an emergency.
“This has already been the case on the side of Inchagoill Road opposite the Séamus Quirke Road,” she said, “when an ambulance came to assist an elderly resident the road was so blocked that it couldn’t turn and had to reverse the length of the road.”
Ms Ní Chróinín has written to the council to underline the fact that the car parking is a “serious threat” to residents’ safety and that the matter should be “urgently tackled”.
