By 2023, and in time for the official start of the summer swimming season, the Blackrock diving tower should be completely renovated and refurbished.
However, this is only if the Galway City Council adheres to the guidelines it has set out, and which were communicated this week to elected members.
This is the view of Fianna Fáil Galway City West councillor, John Connolly. “The council has published a timeline that brings the project to a planning assessment by mid-2022. The project should not be allowed to be delayed any further,” he said. “Should the project be approved, works would be carried out in early 2023. Every effort should be made to ensure this timeline is adhered to.”
Structural repairs
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The renovations at Blackrock are required because the diving tower itself is in need of structural repairs. Under new proposals from the council, these repairs will be carried out, and “one safe access route out to the tower” will be established, “rather than trying to rail off all areas” as was suggested in a previous proposal.
Details of the project, in terms of what has been done so far, and what will happen next, were contained in an email to Cllr Connolly, from City Hall senior engineer Carmel Kilcoyne.
The email outlined that the council’s Parks Capital Section had no engineers at present, and that the project was on hold until engineer Sharon Connolly begins work with the council on January 10. The Blackrock renovation has been selected as a priority project once she starts.
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New consultants have also been appointed, and they will carry out investigations and load testing on the tower to assess its condition. This will require the tower to be closed for a period of three to five days. Swimmers will be given advance notice before the work takes place.
Swimmers views vital
Cllr Connolly [pictured below], who has been to the fore in calling for the renovations, stressed it was vital the views of Blackrock swimmers were taken into account, including views expressed when previous proposals were made to change the popular bathing area.
Those renovations were first proposed in 2017, but the number of hand-rails planned for the site was sharply criticised by swimmers as obstructive and unnecessary.
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In her email, Ms Kilcoyne said consultation with swimmers would be “key to this project in advance of planning”, and ‘informal consultation” with regular swimmers has already begun. Formal public consultation will take place in the near future, but the state of Covid 19 pandemic will determine if this will be “a real or virtual event”.
“The council must be conscious that even since 2017, the number of people using Blackrock on a regular basis has increased substantially,” said Cllr Connolly. “This must be reflected in both the consultation process and the eventual proposals that come forward.”
Timeline
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Permission to carry out the works will be sought from An Bord Pleanála. The council envisage that the consultation will be completed within the first four months of 2022; followed by an application to ABP in the summer, with works beginning in 2023 and ahead of the June bathing season for that year.
Labour Galway City West councillor, Niall McNelis, said the project must be “progressed as soon as staffing allows”, and that Blackrock itself “needs to be properly maintained and annual painting needs to be in place”.
Independent Galway City West councillor, Donal Lyons, had raised the issue of the refurbishment of the Blackrock Diving at a recent meeting of the council’s climate change, environment strategic policy committee.
“The non-painting of the tower this year was due to health and safety issues,” he said, “which will be addressed in the proposed painting tender for 2022.”
