‘Salthill Sundays’ gathering of car enthusiasts involved “contemptible scenes” of tailbacks, littering, and the public feeling intimidated, and must be prevented from happening again.
This is the view of Fine Gael Galway City West councillor, Clodagh Higgins, who was reacting to last weekend’s ‘Salthill Sundays’, which involved “hundreds of car enthusiasts” congregating in the Salthill area.
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The gathering involved cars being revved, exhausts backfiring, wheelspins, clouds of smoke, and, according to Cllr Higgins, “bottles and rubbish being hurled out the window of moving cars”. She said many residents felt “intimidated”, while others claimed they “felt like prisoners in their own home”.
'My fear is ‘Salthill Sundays’ have been advertised throughout Ireland as an event taking place weekly'
Cllr Higgins [pictured below] described the situation as “contemptible”, saying Salthill was “essentially locked down”, resulting in “hours of tailbacks”. Businesses also suffered with restaurants reporting orders cancelled due to collections not being possible because of the traffic.
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“Salthill is not a suitable location for something like this,” she said. “No public road is suitable for this type of event. My fear is that ‘Salthill Sundays’ have been advertised throughout Ireland as an event taking place weekly. We have to have a deterrence plan in place to ensure this does not continue”
Cllr Higgins has been in contact with the Galway City Council chief executive, Brendan McGrath, and the gardaí, to ensure “nobody is subjected to what we were subjected to on Sunday”.
