Residents of Highfield Park, Rahoon Road, and Old Seamus Quirke Road, say they are “shocked and dismayed” at the prospect of a three-storey high Tesco hypermarket being constructed in their area.
The residents’ response comes following a recent meeting called by businessman Micheál Ó hUiginn, where he presented draft plans for the proposed Tesco store on his former lumberyard.
The former mayor explained that Tesco is anxious to procure an outlet in the west of the city and was only interested in a large-scale development. However residents are very concerned at the scale and magnitude of the plans, which they believe will lead to “traffic chaos in the west of the city and destroy the residential fabric of a whole area”.
According to the current Department of Environment guidelines, a hypermarket means “single level, self-service stores selling both food and a range of comparison goods, with net sales floor space in excess of 5,000 square metres”.
However residents point out that the floor space of the proposed development is more than 7,000 square metres, which is much larger than the nearby Dunnes Stores outlet.
The current plan is for a two-storey building that will stand on stilts. The service zone for the proposed development will be alongside Rahoon Road and Mount Pleasant Drive. The work area will include loading and unloading bays, bulk storage areas, plant and plant rooms, as well as electric compactors. Both night-time and day-time delivery trucks will have to mount ramps to get above stilt level to bring goods to the first floor.
In a statement the residents’ associations of the various nearby areas said: “The prospect of night-time and early morning deliveries with heavy goods vehicles being revved and truck lights shining into residents’ bedrooms distressed many of those present. The meeting was told that landscaping would be used to limit the visual impact of the unsightly service area.
“Using the stilt design, the car park will be maximised and accommodate about 600 cars. According to the presentation, Highfield residents will have to contend with traffic from the proposed Tesco outlet to exit their estate.”
Residents from Rahoon Road, Mount Pleasant Drive, and Old Seamus Quirke Road fear they will be worst affected by night-time HGV movements and deliveries, day-time traffic congestion, and a huge rise in everyday noise levels, and serious light interference.
“Given the enormous scale and location of the proposed development, it is likely that traffic problems will also worsen along Seamus Quirke Road, causing delays for Rahoon and Knocknacarra commuters and substantially increasing vehicular traffic in residential areas including Shantalla, Maunsells Road and Taylor’s Hill,” residents said.
At present, work on the Seamus Quirke Road is causing massive disruption to people travelling through the west of the city. The proposed draft Tesco plan envisages further changes to the Seamus Quirke Road to provide slip road access to the retail facility.
According to the residents, this proposed slip road would allow traffic coming from the city to enter Tesco, and to exit either crossing the dual carriageway or towards Knocknacarra. The other end of this slip road would link with Rahoon Road, opposite the entrance to Highfield Park.
The development would necessitate other changes in the surrounding road network. Another access road to the Tesco hypermarket would run parallel to Mount Pleasant Drive. Mr Ó hUiginn told the meeting that it was likely the Rahoon Road exit to Seamus Quirke Road, near the ESB substation, would be closed off.
As a result, residents are concerned that traffic leaving Highfield would not be able to turn left to access Seamus Quirke Road, and the link between Knocknacarra/Rahoon and Highfield/Shantalla would be severed.
Concern was raised that the development would undermine existing public transport routes. As part of the planning process, Mr Ó hUiginn stated that a group of Dublin-based traffic consultants would advise on appropriate measures.
The meeting acknowledged the long-standing involvement that Mr Ó hUiginn has with this area. He admitted that his development would have a huge impact on the local residential and business community but claimed he was almost powerless when dealing with Tesco’s demands for a large-scale development.
According to residents, he agreed that on the residential front there would be major traffic disruption during the building stage and afterwards.
Residents were “horrified to learn that, due to the marshy nature of parts of the site, extensive pile driving would be necessary and would probably take 18 months to complete”.
Mr Ó hUiginn explained to the meeting that Tesco build their outlets according to standardised models and that getting any alterations was “frightfully difficult”. The proposed development may include a plaza area and, in a gesture to local people, he would invite residents to help in the selection of a suitable piece of artwork.
On the night, Mr Ó hUiginn apologised that due to the absence of a well-informed colleague there were questions that he was unable to answer. He explained that this colleague had to attend another meeting on Old Seamus Quirke Road.
The purpose of that meeting between local traders and the Galway City Council officials was to address the fall in business due to ongoing road works on the Seamus Quirke Road.
On the business front, he declared it was inevitable that jobs would ‘migrate’ as a result of the new hypermarket.
The initial comfort residents took from the fact that these were draft plans was short-lived, when it was made apparent that the size of the development may be increased if adjacent lands can be acquired.
Mr Ó hUiginn undertook to deliver a set of the draft plans to the Highfield Park Residents Association.
The meeting concluded with residents expressing bewilderment that a “small majority of city councillors had rejected national planning guidelines and the City Manager’s report to rezone the site at a time when local retailers were struggling to keep their doors open”.
