CITY TRIBUNE
Fresh attempt to build homes on former golf course
Plans to develop housing on the former Rosshill Par 3 golf course have been resurrected – with developers lodging an application to construct 102 units on the site.
A previous application to develop 342 units by Alber Developments – owned by the family of developer Bernard Duffy – was refused by An Bord Pleanála after it was branded a ‘substandard’ form of development on the site. The lands are owned by the Comer Group.
However, a new Strategic Housing Development (SHD) application has been made to the Board – used to fast track proposals for more than 100 residential units by submitting applications directly to An Bord Pleanála after consultations with local authority planners.
The Rosshill Manor development has been broken into a phased development, with the first phase currently under consideration by the Board.
Proposed is the development of 11 one-bed apartments; 24 two-bed apartments; 11 four-bed houses; and 56 three bed-houses.
Provision is made for a childcare facility on site, over two stories with outdoor play areas and car parking (14 spaces). Retail and commercial space is also included.
Each housing unit is to be provided with two car parking spaces, amounting to 130 in total, with a further 134 bicycle parking spaces.
For each apartment, there would be one car parking space, with one visitor car space for every four apartments, giving a total of 43 spaces. One bicycle space per apartment bedroom, with a visitor space for every two apartments amounts to 77 in total.
The planning application also commits to access and junction improvements at Rosshill Road and Rosshill Stud Farm Road, with the provision of a footpath connectivity link along both routes.
The previous plan, submitted in January 2020, was met with huge opposition from locals who said at the time that the area was ill-equipped to deal with a development of such magnitude given the lack of public transport in the area and the fact that it was still a largely agricultural part of the city.
They also stated that due to the regular movement of cattle on the road, and the use of Rosshill as a rat-run for car traffic coming into the city via Oranmore, the area was a regular blackspot for congestion likely to be worsened by such a development.
In its response to the previous application, An Bord Pleanála stated that there was a lack of sewerage infrastructure in the area to service the proposed development and that, based on the information provided, they could not be satisfied that the scheme would not have a negative impact on the nearby Galway Bay Special Protection Area.
In this new application, Alber state that the Merlin Park pumping station has capacity to deal with the wastewater requirements, adding that Irish Water has “confirmed that sufficient capacity is available currently to cater for the proposed development of 102 no. units plus one no. creche”.
Because of the proximity of the proposed development to both the Galway Bay Complex Special Area of Conservation and the Inner Galway Bay Special Protection Area, an Environmental Impact Assessment is included as part of the application.
The developer submitted: “It can be objectively concluded that the proposed project, individually or in combination with other plans or projects, will not adversely affect the integrity of any European site.”
An Bord Pleanála is due to give its decision by October 28. The full planning application is available to view at on the Rosshill Manor website.
Bradley Bytes – a sort of political column with Dara Bradley
Management at University of Galway has asked staff to “politely correct” anyone who uses “older or incorrect versions and abbreviations” of its name.
Pól Ó Dochartaigh, Deputy President and Registrar of University of Galway, or Ollscoil na Gaillimhe (formerly known as Queen’s College Galway; University College Galway, or UCG; and National University of Ireland Galway, or NUIG) made the plea in an email issued to staff earlier in May.
“Almost inevitably in Ireland, a tendency in some quarters has arisen to seek to bury the name behind letters, an action which defeats the purpose of our carefully researched rebranding decision,” he said.
That research, he said, showed that its key strength was that it was a university, based in Galway, “a city that evokes immensely positive feelings nationally and globally.
“It is important therefore that all staff use the new name in full, in either language”, he said.
“We are not ‘UG’, or ‘UoG’, or ‘UofG’ or OnaG, or any other such contraction,” Mr Ó Dochartaigh stated.
“When others mis-spell or foreshorten names, whether personal or institutional, if it isn’t an honest mistake then it is disrespectful, and it is common practice to politely correct the mistake in a reply.
“Only the most obtuse individuals would ignore such information and persist with incorrect usage. I would ask all staff to own and use our new name, and to politely point out the new name to anyone, internal or external, who uses older or incorrect versions and abbreviations,” Mr Ó Dochartaigh said.
The directive, emailed to staff, comes months after the university spent some €500,000 on rebranding itself to University of Galway or Ollscoil na Gaillimhe, names which the university said had no abbreviations.
(Photo: Deputy President and Registrar of University of Galway, Pól Ó Dochartaigh).
This is a shortened preview version of this column. For more Bradley Bytes, see the May 26 edition of the Galway City Tribune. You can buy a digital edition HERE.
From this week’s Galway City Tribune – City councillors have claimed they have been kept in the dark about plans to provide temporary shelter to International Protection applicants.
Galway’s Oireachtas members – TDs and senators – were briefed by the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (CEDIY) about plans to accommodate over 300 asylum seekers in converted offices in Ballybrit (pictured).
However, councillors said they did not get the same briefing. Instead, they were given a shorter, separate statement from Galway City Council confirming the Ballybrit plans, but without any detail.
It was also confirmed to councillors that the Department was in talks to provide accommodation at a B&B on College Road, and at 13 apartments in Doughiska.
The Dept told TDs and senators their “support in assisting the positive integration of International Protection applicants to the community is greatly appreciated”.
But councillors willing to do likewise – to assist the integration of these people into communities – claimed they are hampered by an information deficit.
Councillor Alan Cheevers (FF) said Doughiska is Galway’s most diverse community. “We pride ourselves in our area on integration, but the communication has been very poor,” he said.
He said he sought information about where the nationality of applicants who will be living in the Doughiska apartments.
“If there are 50 Ukrainians or Syrians, for example, can we put the resources in place such as translators to help these people?
“The ARD Family Resource Centre at the Cumasú Centre is going to need additional resources. That’s why consultation and engagement with local councillors is needed,” he said.
This is a shortened preview version of this story. To read the rest of the article, see the May 26 edition of the Galway City Tribune. You can support our journalism and buy a digital edition HERE.
From this week’s Galway City Tribune – More than a quarter of teens in the city have been ‘drunk in the last month’, while vaping has overtaken smoking as the more common vice in young people according to a new survey.
These statistics were revealed by Planet Youth this week, an initiative of the Western Region Drug and Alcohol Task Force, which surveyed 754 15- and 16-year-olds in 11 schools as part of a citywide study.
The results showed that 26% of respondents in the age category had been drunk in the previous month; 18% of city teens do their drinking in a friend’s home; and 16% of them reported being drunk by the age of 14.
Some 11% of those who were drinking alcohol had got it from a parent, while a further 7% had secured it from a friend’s parent. Results showed that those whose parents disapproved of drinking were almost three-times less likely to get drunk.
When it came to the use of illegal drugs, 16% of post-Junior Cert students said they had tried cannabis.
Of more than 750 respondents, 16% were daily vapers versus 6% who said they were daily smokers.
This is a shortened preview version of this story. To read the rest of the article, see the May 26 edition of the Galway City Tribune. You can support our journalism and buy a digital edition HERE.
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