Students at NUI Galway have launched an online petition demanding that decision-makers scrap the highly controversial proposed routs for the N6 Galway City Transport Project.
The petition calls on the NRA, ARUP, NRDO, and the Galway city and county councils “to see reason and send the proposed route options back to the drawing board”. It is supported by NUI Galway Clubs and Societies, as well as the university, the Kingfisher Club, and the NUI Galway Students’ Union.
Five of the six proposed N6 routes cut across the university campus, and two routes in particular, the red and blue routes, are of particular concern to NUIG’s 20,000 students and staff, as they involve the demolition of some of the most heavily-used student facilities, including the sports centre and swimming pool, Dangan Sports Pavilion, regional sports centre, and the playing and training pitches.
The proposed routes would also cause irreversible damage to the campus environment, which is regarded as the most biodiverse university campus in Ireland according to last year’s national BioBlitz competition.
A decision will be made this month on which of the proposed routes to take. In the meantime, NUI Galway clubs and societies are calling on their fellow students, university staff, and the Galway public to sign the petition by searching for ‘Rethink N6’ on Change.org or by visiting http://chn.ge/1xWUsuG.
