Galway council revokes plans for temporary 3km cycleway

Galway City Council has revoked plans for a temporary 3km cycleway along the promenade in Salthill.

Councillors decided to overturn an earlier decision to support the plan, after concerns from local residents, businesses and emergency services.

After almost four hours of debate this evening, elected representatives voted 13 to 4 to abandon plans for the cycleway.

A motion by Mayor Colette Connolly to shorten the route, to take account of the concerns of emergency services, was nullified by the decision.

Tonight's vote comes after weeks of intense debate around two route options put forward by council engineers for the temporary cycling infrastructure.

Almost 7,000 submissions were made to a public consultation process about the proposals. More than 60% of respondents opposed both routes, with the traffic and access issues topping the list of concerns.

Emergency services also said that traffic changes would have an impact on access and response times, on the west side of the city and further afield.

Last September, councillors voted by 17 to 1 in favour of a temporary two-way cycle lane along the popular promenade, with an additional one-way section continuing to the Bearna Road.

Mayor Connolly, who proposed the original motion last September, tonight sought to secure backing for a cycle lane from Grattan Road to Blackrock, abandoning plans for the route to continue further west.

This proposal generated much debate, with a number of councillors querying whether it was permissible under standing orders.

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Green Party Councillor Martina O'Connor said the city was on the verge of providing safe cycling infrastructure. She argued that the proposal to shorten the cycle lane, as put forward by the Mayor, should be the basis on which councillors should proceed.

But Fianna Fáil Councillor Peter Keane - who proposed the revocation - said the cycle lane was the single most divisive issue that had come before the council in years.

He said there had been "vitriolic" exchanges and the Council Executive had failed in presenting two options that were "off the charts" in terms of their viability. He said "the plan was so devoid of contingency that it beggars belief".

Independent Councillor Donal Lyons said fully planned, fully designed cycling infrastructure would get widespread support but this had not happened in this case. He said the council could not ignore the concerns of emergency services.

His fellow Independent, Cllr Terry O'Flaherty, said she opposed both route options. She told the meeting she could "paper a room" with the volume of correspondence she had received from people in recent weeks about the cycle lane.

Cllr O'Flaherty said an alternative plan for a cycleway, that would be agreeable to all, should now be worked on.

Green Councillor Niall Murphy argued that councillors needed to show leadership and to back cycle lanes that involved paint and bollards and bicycles, instead of aspirational measures.

Decision a 'retrograde' step

The Mayor of Galway described tonight's decision as a retrograde step. Ms Connolly said the vote to revoke an earlier decision by Councillors was "extremely regrettable".

All five Fianna Fáil members, along with five Independents, two Fine Gael Councillors and one Labour representative supported a motion to row back on last September's vote to install a 3km temporary cycle lane.

The motion was rejected by Mayor Connolly, as well as by two Green Party Councillors and Owen Hanley of the Social Democrats.

One Fine Gael Councillor, Eddie Hoare, was absent.

The Mayor said tonight's vote was terribly disappointing and had set back improved cycle facilities in Salthill by at least a year.

Cllr Connolly said she regretted that Councillors saw fit to "rescind their own motion" and that they had failed to accept her recommendation that the views of the emergency services be taken on board by ending the trial cycle path at Blackrock, instead of continuing it further west.

She said she felt that the Council should have showed vision and moved forward with the project. The Mayor said funding was available for the infrastructure and this should have been drawn down to progress the initiative.