City Councillor Declan McDonnell has welcomed the news that tenders are being invited for designing a major upgrade of facilities for St James’ GAA Club.
An all-weather pitch is included in the plans by the club, which serves a large area on the east side of the city, including Renmore, Mervue, Ballybane, Ballybrit and Doughiska.
Councillor McDonnell had learned that Galway City Council was finally putting the project out for tender, something that was to be very much welcomed, though it was disappointing that it had taken so long: “I have been pressing for this major improvement of facilities by St James’s to be got off the ground. I have raised it several times with council officials and the delay has caused huge frustration for the club."
“It’s taken several years at this stage — they were allocated total funding of €148,000 under the Government's Sports Capital and Equipment Programme in 2018 and 2020 but it has taken this long to get to the stage of tenders being invited for the design work,” said the independent councillor.
“Because the rules of the grants scheme dictate that only sports clubs which own their own lands or have a lease of at least 15 years can apply for their own funding, it’s the local authority in most cases that has to put the application in and see the project through."
“But the council has not enough staff to progress projects like this as quickly as we would like, and so we see long delays in getting them off the ground, as has happened in the case of St James’s. I want to thank the Director and Senior Engineers for progressing with this project as a result of my ongoing representations, despite the long delay."
“It will be a source of great relief to the people involved in the club to learn that the first concrete steps are now being taken,” added Councillor McDonnell.
