Footpaths: we love them, we leave them, we walk all over them. And yet we forever need them.
Is there anything quite as emotive in any city as the state of its footpaths? People of a certain age may never notice them. They stride along, blissfully unaware of what lies beneath their feet. But for the vast majority of us — and particularly those with dodgy hips, dodgier knees, buggies, wheelchairs or mobility issues — the state of Galway’s footpaths has long been a matter of concern.
And so, next Monday, Galway City Councillors will have to decide whether to take a step towards solving the problem.
The proposal before them is to increase the Local Property Tax by 10%, raising an additional €1,033,960 each year. The money would be ringfenced for a three-year programme of footpath improvements, amounting to more than €3 million in total.
It is, in many ways, a decision that puts councillors at a fork in the path.
Do they reject an increase in LPT, keep the tax lower and condemn Galway’s footpaths to another long walk towards deterioration? Or do they vote for an increase at a time when household budgets are already under pressure and the general mood could hardly be described as a stroll in the park?
Therein lies the rub — and, indeed, the trip hazard. Many houses in Galway (not spurprisingly ) fall towards the lower end of the property valuation bands, meaning that the yield from Local Property Tax is not what it might be elsewhere. That makes finding additional money for infrastructure a perennial challenge.
The Council’s argument is straightforward enough. Many Galway housing estates are more than 30 years old, and their footpaths are beginning to show it. Cracks, uneven surfaces and general deterioration are not merely aesthetic annoyances. They can create genuine safety and accessibility problems, particularly for older people and those with mobility difficulties.
At present, the Council operates two dedicated footpath improvement crews. The proposed investment would fund a third, increasing capacity by around 50%.
That, according to the Council, would mean increasing the number of estates receiving improvement works from approximately 42 a year to 63. Over three years, that amounts to about 189 housing estates.
Now that is a lot of pavement. The money would pay for staff, concrete, aggregate and reinforcement, as well as plant, vehicles, specialist equipment and contracted JCB and lorry services. The idea is to move away from the current largely reactive approach — waiting for the footpath to become a problem and then fixing it — towards a planned, risk-based programme.
Priority would go to areas where the need is greatest, including footpaths around schools, community facilities, public transport and locations used by people with mobility difficulties.
On paper, at least, it sounds like a sensible way forward.
But there is a political pothole in the middle of the proposal.
Councillors must decide whether improving something as fundamental as the pavement outside people’s homes is worth asking those same people to pay more.
When the proposal first emerged last week, there was a suspicion that it might also provide a useful diversion from other matters beginning with the letter G. Whether that was coincidence or clever political footwork, it certainly gave everyone something else to walk and talk about.
Now the councillors have a weekend to think it over before Monday’s vote.
There will be arguments on both sides. Nobody likes paying more tax. But nobody likes watching an elderly neighbour negotiate a cracked footpath as if they were competing in an obstacle course either.
The great danger is that footpaths are easy to take for granted — right up until the moment they fail you.
So Monday’s decision may ultimately come down to a simple question: is this an unnecessary tax hike, or an investment in getting Galway’s residents safely from A to B?
For the councillors, the path ahead may not be entirely clear.
But whichever way they vote, one thing is certain: there is no point paving the way for a better Galway if nobody is prepared to pay for the pavement.
