Bus hub plan stuck in first gear
A proposal to convert a five-acre site into a bus transport hub close to Oranmore has narrowly failed to win support after Galway County Council believed that it would jeopardise other investment in the area.
The local authority felt that, if the land was zoned industrial – as had been proposed – it would impact on future foreign investment along the strategic economic corridor between Oranmore and Athenry.
It had been mooted that the private bus operator, City Direct, would move its bus base from Lough Atalia to the site in Glenascaul, Oranmore, where there would be a charging point for up to 20 vehicles.
The proposal to zone the lands industrial came from Cllr Donagh Killilea (FF) who said that it would become a transport hub that could accommodate other private bus companies as well.
The issue came before a meeting of Galway County Development Plan when senior officials were advocating that they would not be zoned industrial and revert to unzoned lands.
When it came to a vote, it was decided to reject the proposal to zone the lands for industrial use by 14 votes to 12, with nine councillors abstaining.
Senior Executive Engineer, Valerie Loughnane, said that this site was outside a settlement area and close to the strategic economic corridor between Oranmore and Athenry. She requested that it remain unzoned.
She said that if this proposal was accepted, it would represent random zoning that could impact on future foreign direct investment on the economic corridor. “It would impact on our ability to attract investment along this important corridor,” Ms Loughnane added.
In response, Cllr Killilea said that this portion of land was within ‘shouting distance’ of an existing IDA park in the area and did not understand how it could have an adverse impact on the strategic economic corridor.
He said that it was impossible to locate sufficient open space to locate such a transport hub within the city and believed that this was an ideal opportunity to provide a facility of this nature.
Cllr Joe Sheridan (FF) said that given its location close to an IDA park, the development of a transport hub for busses would be complimentary to this.
The Dunmore councillor said that it would provide parking for “multi-purposes” and was an opportunity that should not be passed up.
Cllr Declan Geraghty (Ind) said that if Galway County Council were hoping to attract a big multi-national company for the economic corridor, then they would need a transport hub on their doorstep and that this would “tick all the boxes”.
However, there were other councillors including Cllr Liam Carroll (FG) and Cllr Jim Cuddy (Ind) who said the site would be totally inappropriate for industrial zoning and would be in conflict with the economic corridor.
But Athenry’s Cllr Shelley Herterich Quinn (FF) said that there was no movement on the strategic economic corridor while the transport hub was ready to go.