Heated exchanges at special City Hall meeting on traffic chaos

By Dara Bradley

There were heated exchanges between City Councillors and City Hall officials at last night’s (Monday) emergency meeting of Galway City Council, to discuss the ongoing traffic gridlock.

The executive of the Council rejected claims it was ignoring the city’s traffic congestion in the short term; and also rejected claims it was not coming up with immediate solutions to solve the traffic crux.

City Manager Joe O’Neill and Director of Services Ciarán Hayes said the Council was implementing, on a continuous basis, plans to help with the flow of traffic.

Mayor of Galway, Hildergarde Naughton, who used the powers of office to convene the meeting, said she was extremely disappointed that Galway Gardaí were not represented at the meeting.

She only learned Gardaí would not be in attendance three hours beforehand and “no reason was given” as to why the Force wouldn’t be in attendance.

She said the people of Galway were “seething” with anger at the gridlock – it was wasting time and money for businesses and causing huge stress for motorists. They want an immediate solution to peak-time congestion, she said.

Director of Services for Transport and Infrastructure, Ciarán Hayes, defended his department’s record on traffic management. He rejected claims that the public’s concerns were falling on deaf ears. He said he understood the “anger and frustration” of motorists and insisted the Council was taking measures to improve the situation.

In a presentation, he said the lack of an outer bypass, the network of roundabouts, the absence of an urban traffic management centre, and an under-developed public transport network and services.

However, he said the Council is tackling these issues – plans are advanced to remove the city’s roundabouts, and the installation of a traffic management centre. He said there is a gradual roll-out of bus lanes and bus priority measures, as well as the enhancement of cycling and walking facilities.

Mr Hayes said the perception that traffic congestion was caused by the Council’s road works was false. The problem is Galway has a “defined space available in the road network and when it’s full we’re in gridlock – it had nothing to do with road works,” he said.

Cllr Catherine Connolly (Ind) said the Mayor’s calling of the meeting “smacks of cynicism and hypocrisy”. Cllr Connolly said the Fine Gael Mayor would be better off putting pressure on her party leader, the Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, to provide funding under the Smarter Travel plan. The Council has plans in place to implement measures to alleviate congestion but it needed the €26 million in funding it applied for under Smarter Travel in order for them to be implemented.

Work is due to begin on the removal of a roundabout at Briarhill but there were calls at the meeting for this project to be shelved until a traffic management plan is put in place. Mr Hayes asked Councillors to take the difficult decisions, despite pressure from stakeholders, and vote for changing roundabouts to signalised junctions.  

 For more, read this week's Connacht Sentinel.