A special meeting of Galway city council on Monday to discuss immediate solutions to the city’s traffic problems descended into a playground squabble between councillors and officials, offering no immediate solutions.
Proposals offered to the top table such as the construction of an outer city bypass, contra-flow lanes, and park and ride were rubbished by director of services, Ciarán Hayes, and labelled as “simplistic” while several motions were deemed “illegal”.
“Galway City Council is a toxic brand” according to councillor Pádraig Conneely. “The disconnect between the people and the council is getting wider and wider. The council is not coming to grips with the problem at hand.”
The meeting was doomed from the outset when Mayor Hildegarde Naughton indicated the Gardai, which she described as one of the major stakeholders responsible for dealing with congestion in the city, would not be attending the meeting.
During a meeting with the Garda last week, the Mayor sought a commitment that the council and Gardai would come up with a solution, however she said: “I feel it fell on deaf ears.”
In a presentation from Mr Hayes he indicated that the common perception was that roadworks, traffic lights, hoardings at the Art House cinema, and a lack of park and ride facilities are to blame for the city’s current traffic congestion.
“We have a bigger problem,” he added, “there is not enough road space to be able to cater for the volume of traffic at peak times. We do not have the tools to manage traffic through the city.”
Calls for lights to be switched off and gardai to be put on point duty were also rubbished by the director. “If you put a garda on duty where would he send the traffic? There’s nowhere for it to go,” he pointed out.
Mr Hayes went on to agree with councillors that the lack of an outer city bypass will continue to force unwanted traffic to traverse through the city. Councillors passed a motion for the council to look at the possibilities of building the bypass.
Councillors were also informed that the cost of the park and ride facility at the race course costs in the region of €120,000 for a three-week period at Christmas, and there is no funding currently available to create any new facilities.
A motion proposed by Labour that the council immediately put in place the Urban Traffic Control centre that was previously agreed on was deemed “impossible” by Mr Hayes.
“I would put the system in place in the morning if I could, but the funding and procurement process has not yet been completed,” he said.
He agreed that the UTC is a vital part of the jigsaw in the city’s traffic problems but stressed that the next phases of the N6 Improvement Scheme must also be passed by the council next week.
The vote will address the signalisation of two further roundabouts on the N6 network - the Font, and the Morris roundabouts.
With no real solutions offered from the floor, one of the few voices of reason was Labour’s Niall McNelis who suggested the council develops a better communications strategy to manage the problems, and keep the public up-to-date on traffic issues in the city.
“We need to put the message out there that this city is open for business,” said Cllr McNelis. “The word being put out there is that Galway should be avoided like the plague.”
Cllr Donal Lyons proposed that the new bus corridors along the Seamus Quirke Road only be used during peak hours, and to allow cars to use the lanes throughout the day.
However Mr Hayes said: “You cannot in law do what you want to do,” as planning was only granted for buses and taxis to use the lanes. The motion was voted down by the council.
Continuing with defective motions Cllr Conneely proposed a motion to defer the construction of the signalised junction at the Lynch Roundabout – work which is due to start next week. The motion was deemed illegal by city managers and the Mayor refused to put it to the floor.
A number of motions were passed during the evening to which Cllr Conneely said “will go no further than the front door.”
Addressing Mayor Naughton, Cllr Conneely said: “Mayor, what will be different tomorrow? Nothing.”
