Council ‘divide and conquer’ ploy slammed

BY CIARAN TIERNEY

Senior city officials have been accused of operating a “divide and conquer” policy in relation to the contentious plan to convert the Kirwan Roundabout near the Menlo Park Hotel into a signalised junction as part of the Galway Traffic Management Plan.

After backing down in the face of public opposition to plans for a slip road at Menlo Park over three weeks ago, officials faced more opposition this week when local businesses opposed a ‘Plan B’ which would have cut the Sandy Road and Liosban off from the junction.

Officials have also come under fire from the Mayor of Galway, Hildegarde Naughton, for discussing plans for the roundabout with local area representatives when, she believes, they should be discussed with every local representative in the city.

She has accused the Council of being ‘undemocratic’ in a terse exchange of correspondence seen by the Galway City Tribune.

Cllr Padraig Conneely (FG) claimed the Council’s plans were now “in tatters” following the u-turn over the slip road at Merlin Park and the opposition of businesses to new proposals to cut Sandy Road off from a new four lane junction.

“The ‘make it up as you go along’ policy of Galway City Council in relation to the roundabouts has lost all credibility, as it has now ditched its ‘preferred option’ for the Kirwan,” he said.

Cllr Conneely suggested that the elected members of the Council should go as far as engaging their own independent consultants to come up with a solution to the problem.

Director of Services Ciaran Hayes rejected criticism of the officials in relation to the Kirwan Roundabout plan when contacted by the Galway City Tribune yesterday.

“Whatever option we go with, there is going to be one sector extremely unhappy. The Council is going to have to make an unpopular decision. The debate over access is precisely what I predicted three weeks ago when we agreed to go back to review the plans.”

For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.