Galwegians RFC’s €16 million development has met another stumbling block with An Bord Pleanala refusing planning permission for the club’s new grounds at Brownville.
The board turned down the division one club’s application based on traffic safety, claiming the development would interfere with the safety and free flow of traffic on the route and would adversely affect the use and safety of the national road for road users.
It is another setback for the club which has spent the last 15 years looking for a new home to replace the small Dublin Road site, and has prompted an angry reaction from club chairman MacDara Hosty.
“It beggars belief that we have been cut down by a government body and the only objection came from another State body, the National Roads Authority,” Mr Hosty says.
“Corinthians have built a fantastic facility and they have managed successfully over the years yet are based on a national route.
“Why is it that is OK for not just Corinthians but anybody to develop a facility on a national primary route and yet is not ok to provide such a facility on a secondary route,” he asks.
“The garda traffic corps expects the speed limit on that stretch of road to be reduced, and we have one of the top engineers in the country who has made proposals to make the route safer.”
Although remaining positive the club will eventually find a new home, he describes the decision as a “major setback”.
Given that the club boasts some 31 teams, including 400 players who are registered to play rugby from the ages of five to 18, the situation at Glenina is becoming frustrating. It has been made worse, according to the club, since the HSE refused permission to use its Merlin Park pitches.
Hosty says it is unbelievable that three government bodies are standing in the way of Galwegians’ progress, a club that is providing facilities for the city, county, and province.
“ It is incredible that the HSE, which is supposed to be promoting a healthier community and is concerned with obesity, is stopping a club like ours from providing young people with healthy sport.
“These three government bodies are not answerable to the people of the city, county, or the province. Yet they are stopping us at a time the man in charge of them, the Taoiseach, is telling us that everyone has to work together at this time.”
Members of the club had unanimously voted in favour of selling its grounds at Crowley Park in Glenina on the Dublin Road to Rhattigans Construction and to develop a state of the art clubhouse, pitches, and other facilities at the 30 acre site at Brownville on the Moycullen Road. However the agreement was subject to planning being achieved.
Hosty says Galwegians will be staying in Crowley Park for the foreseeable future, and the challenge is to develop an infrastructure off the field to mirror the “magnificent structures we have built on the field”.
“Thankfully we do still have a home - one that has produced four presidents of the IRFU and won more Connacht Senior Cups that any other. Galwegians is about rugby and we will continue. We are currently preparing a plan that will begin the process of bringing us from where we are now to that point in the future where we will have a home worthy of the 31 teams who take to the field representing Galwegians.”
