ONE of the main campaigners in trying to save from extinction one of the city’s most iconic coastal strips has conceded this week that the battle may be lost.

Local Independent councillor, Donal Lyons, said that a combination of EU directives and the policies of the NPWS (National Parks and Wildlife Service) now meant that the Sailín to Silverstrand coastline would disappear over the coming decades.

The former Mayor of Galway told the Galway City Tribune that the City Council was now ‘powerless’ to take any actions to prevent this stretch of coastline being ‘eaten away’ by coastal erosion.

“We’ve been trying everything since 2006 to put in place defences against coastal erosion which each year is sweeping away chunks of this coastline – one of the great landmarks and attractions of our city.

“We as councillors and the Executive of the City Council have done all we can for the best part of the last two decades to clear the way for the coastal defences to be put in place but we’ve been thwarted by the EU’s Habitats Directive and the NPWS (National Parks and Wildlife Service),” said Cllr Lyons.

He said that as far back as December, 2006, an Environmental Impact Statement [EIS], prepared for the City Council by RPS Consulting Engineers [Belfast] in association  with HGL O’Connor [Woodquay, Galway], had spelled out quite clearly, what the consequences would be if ‘nothing was done’ to protect this section of coastline.

Pictured: Landmarks set to disappear: the drumlin of Knocknagoneen at Silver Strand, with Gentian Hill in the distance.