Residents fight Bish school move
Residents from Dangan Heights held a public meeting this week with the aim of forming a committee to object to the building of a post primary school on NUI Galway lands opposite their estate.
This follows an amendment, approved by the City Council in November – to the City Development Plan 2017-2023 – rezoning the land between the hockey pitch at NUI Galway and the Connacht Regional Sport Centre to allow for the development of a post-primary school.
The site has been touted as a suitable location for the relocation of ‘the Bish’ from Nuns Island, to deal with increasing numbers of students and deteriorating conditions at the current site.
In a show of hands, it became apparent that the room was almost unanimously against the proposed school.
Traffic was the main concern of attendees with the already precarious traffic situation in the area leaving residents fearing a worsening of the situation.
“One councillor said this will take all the traffic out of the city – what about the traffic up here?” said one Dangan Heights resident, adding: “We could be having an extra 400 to 600 cars a day coming into that area, we just don’t know.”
Another irate resident exclaimed: “Already people in Dangan Heights are suffering with the primary school; they will use Dangan Heights and Dangan Court as a turning point – this is the kind of nuisance we are facing.”
For more on the residents’ meeting, see this week’s Galway City Tribune