BRADLEY BYTES: Galway City Council displays ample neck entering parking app for award
A controversial parking app that has caused frustration and outrage among motorists, the business community, and local politicians since its introduction in Galway City has been shortlisted for an award.
We thought it was a joke, but no. You actually couldn’t make it up.
Galway City Council’s parking app has been shortlisted as a “finalist” at the eGovernment Awards in the ‘Smart Cities and Urban Development Award’ and the ‘Digital Services, Payments, and Transactions Award’.
It’s bad enough that the entry was shortlisted, but imagine having the neck to enter it in the first place after all the controversy surrounding the parking app’s introduction.
We won’t rehash the many previous column inches devoted to this fiasco of City Hall’s making, but let’s not forget the hundreds of thousands of euro spent on a legal case over the city’s 90 Pay and Display machines that were decommissioned in favour of the app.
And remember, too, the tens of thousands of euro (€152,000 by the Council’s own conservative estimate) lost due to the botched introduction of the app and phasing out of coin and tap payments for parking.
Then there was the financial outlay on ‘hoods’ to cover the parking meters the Council decommissioned in favour of their shiny new app.
We have to wait ‘til September but if they win the award, are they then going to gaslight us and pretend that its introduction wasn’t a shambles?
Just remember folks: All that glitters is not gold!
Bunting – a great problem to have!
The kerfuffle online this week about the lack of maroon and white bunting in Galway City proves there’s no pleasing some people.
This Friday and Saturday at 9.30pm, a giant whale measuring seven metres tall, with acrobats going even higher into the air, will float through the centre of the city.
It’s the latest iteration of the annual parade or street spectacle as part of this year’s Galway International Arts Festival.
Based on Moby Dick, it will bring tens of thousands of people to the city, mostly families. The best part is it's free entertainment.
The height of the spectacle means Galway City Council had to ask people not to hang bunting across city centre streets. Or if they did hang it, they had to take it down by Friday. That’s unfortunate but the hysteria online has been ridiculous.
Are people seriously suggesting that the Festival move the parade route so city businesses can hang bunting? They need to cop on.
Local authorities right across this country would do almost anything to replicate the buzz of GIAF in their towns and cities.
Rather than cribbing and moaning in online social media comment sections about the City Council and Arts Festival, which planned this parade long before Galway qualified for the All-Ireland final, people should channel that negativity to come up with more innovative ways of supporting Micheál Donoghue and his team than bunting.
Labour’s crash landing on helipad
All councillors were conflicted in the vote at Monday’s meeting on whether to sell City Council land to the HSE to facilitate a permanent helipad for University Hospital Galway.
The HSE’s reneging on a 2013 deal to use the land for just six months put elected members in a bind.
They didn’t want to upset the Shantalla community, but at the same time did not want to appear opposed to vital healthcare infrastructure.
The Mayor of Galway, Councillor Helen Ogbu has shown her political naivety in this whole affair.
On the one hand, she emailed a resident on the eve of the vote, confirming she would oppose the sale. But when it came down to it, she actually voted in favour.
Saying one thing and doing another is nothing new for politicians but it was a disappointing and unnecessary flip-flop.
Politicians are entitled to change their minds and vote as they see fit, but rowing back on a commitment so soon after giving it damages the Mayor’s credibility.
Presumably it will damage harmony within Labour too. John McDonagh, the local councillor in Shantalla, stood firm with residents and opposed the sale, but Níall McNelis voted in favour.
One wonders what leader Ivana Bacik made of it all, as she posed for photos with all three at the Galway International Arts Festival launch at the Galmont after the contentious meeting.
Empathy in short supply
When it was reported last week that Minister Patrick O’Donovan had taken a bad turn and was in hospital in Brussels, social media was flooded with nasty celebratory comments.
It didn’t take long for the trolls to spew their bile about Ann Widdecombe soon after it was revealed she had been killed at her home.
Regardless of your strong personal feelings on these two public figures, people should remember that it’s okay not to share those feelings on Facebook or Twitter/X.
Where has our empathy gone?