Galway GAA club has 'major concerns' over nearby proposed development

Loughrea Hurling Club have issued a submission in relation to the Cycle/Walking Lane earmarked to run alongside their hurling pitch.

The club say while they “fully acknowledge and support the objective of encouraging people to travel safely by walking and cycling”, they believe the current proposal does not appear to “adequately consider the safety, access, parking and day-to-day operational requirements of the hurling club and its members”.

Loughrea Hurling Club has around 400 members across its five senior teams and ten juvenile teams which includes 170 underage players.

They say the safety of its juvenile members must be considered as part of the design.

The club continued: “A significant number of our juvenile players are children who must be dropped off and collected by parents and guardians - this is an essential consideration.

“We are concerned that the proposed Cycle/Walking Lane, if developed without adequate consideration of this activity, could create additional conflict between cyclists, pedestrians and vehicles at precisely the times when large numbers of children are arriving at and leaving the facility.”

The club also had “major concerns” over the lack of alternative parking provisions” something they feel will be heightened during match days.

You can read their full submission here.

The proposed active travel scheme across three streets in the heart of Loughrea will see parking spaces outside the GAA pitch removed and raised pedestrian crossings installed at key locations.

The preferred design will involve extending footpaths, creating a dedicated cyclepath along some of the route and signalising all arms of a four-arm junction on Bride Street for pedestrians where there is currently just one chance to cross.

The route goes along 1.2km of Bride St, 600m of Danesfort Road and 300m of the one-way Bohercom Road.

Bride Street will get a two-way cycle track on the north side, separated from traffic. Footpaths will be retained on both side with three new raised pedestrian crossings. There will be new rain gardens planted with clearly defined on-street car parking.

Danesfort will have wider footpaths, its existing zebra crossing will be upgraded to a raised crossing and there will be an extra zebra crossing installed further along.

Due to hindering bin lorries and emergency vehicles, students from St Raphael College will have their informal parking removed on Bohercom, which is used by a lot of students to access the school.

Traffic surveys found high volumes along Bridge Street – counts clocked 6,000 per day - with cars routinely driving up to 65km/h in a 50km/h zone. Danesfort was slightly less busy with 4,500 vehicles per day, also regularly breaking the speed limit.

On both these roads the carriageway will be narrowed to encourage motorists to slow down and give priority to cyclists and walkers. The signalised junction on Bride Street will have a green man light on each of the four arms while a new drop-off point will be added for school runs.

Parking on the pitchside of the Loughrea GAA club will be removed to make way for a dedicated cycle and walking path to make it safer for the 100 people crossing the road at this location every day.

Niall Madden of Aecom Consultants told the Loughrea Municipal District meeting that current cyclists were low in numbers – 30 a day at most along the three roads. “But we feel this is due to the lack of facilities at the moment.”

The overall objective of the scheme was to encourage people to cycle and walk between their homes to schools, businesses and clubs.

Fine Gael Councillor Michael 'Moegie' Maher predicted there would be kick-back from Loughrea GAA club over lost parking.

Fellow party Cllr Jimmy McClearn said the scheme was excluding the south and west sides of the town and was more like a school route than a town active travel scheme.

Cllr Michael Regan (FF) asked why the route stopped short of roundabouts and junctions on all sides. He too believed the GAA club would be unhappy with the loss of carparking spaces, with an astro pitch on site attracting hundreds of young players every evening.

Cllr Laurie Harney (FG) asked when footpaths would be installed for the hundreds of pupils walking along the busy main road between Ardrahan and Labane. A new school was being built in Gort which had no footpath leading to it.

Kasia Garvey from Aecom said the National Transport Authority had called for projects which did not require major structural changes and could be delivered quickly, which was why Loughrea was one of three prioritised in Galway – the others were in Tuam and Ballinasloe.

“I'm aware of the parking issues outside the GAA club but there are safety issues, with car parking, especially at training and match times. There's a lot of movement of cars at speed. The room isn't there to protect all parking.”

She said there was parking further up Bride Street, which was mostly empty outside of peak times that could be used for motorists accessing the pitch.

The public have the chance to give their views on the project by phone call, online or by email until October 2.