Residents on the east side of Galway city staged a roadside protest this week to voice their concerns over a second mass development of high-rise student accommodation which they say will tear their community apart.

Seven residents’ groups, representing 2,000 families, picketed early morning traffic on the Coolough Road at the junction with the Dyke Road to highlight their fears over the development of seven blocks of apartments up to five storeys high overlooking Lough Corrib.

McHugh Property Holdings Ltd has lodged the application to demolish two established houses and the ruins of a third and build the largescale student village with 84 apartments with 586 beds on the site. The plans have proposed 16 car spaces, with the properties open for short-term rentals over the summer.

On the other side of the road Montane Developments have started work on building a 257-bed student complex backing onto parts of Crestwood and Tirellan Heights across two blocks, up to five storeys in height. Residents unsuccessfully lodged an appeal to An Bord Pleanála claiming it would create noise, traffic and parking havoc in the area.

That development has just one car space in the entire complex, which will also be used for tourist accommodation outside of the student academic year. There are six drop-off spaces and one EV charging space.

A meeting was held last Thursday attended by 80 people at the Menlo Park Hotel over the proposal for the second student complex at which residents spoke about the chronic need for housing for local families.

They did not need yet another high-end student village, which is geared to fee-paying international students due to the extortionate rents charged by these private operators.

The high-rise buildings will dwarf a proliferation of homes in Crestwood, Castlelawn Heights, Tirellan Heights, Carraig Bán, Lakewood, Caislín, Illaunree Drive, Coolough and the Dyke Road, some of which are located in the city Gaeltacht.

This time residents are paying a consultant to draw up an objection to Galway City Council. The area is already plagued by heavy traffic in the morning and evening rush hour and these two developments would make life unbearable for families and older people living in the area, said Crestwood resident Deirdre Carroll.

With 325 people living in Crestwood according to the last Census, the two complexes with 843 students or tourists would dwarf the current permanent resident population.

“The Dyke Road is a death trap, there has already been a pedestrian fatality and several near misses here – adding more traffic and pedestrians to this congested area is madness. There has been a 30kph speed limit here all year which is largely ignored by motorists,” she stated.

“This site is beside a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and has protected views and a huge amount of wildlife. It’s totally out of kilter with the low-rise character of this residential part of the city.”

Secretary of the Crestwood Residents’ Association Pat Ryan said there would be just one car space for 36 people in the McHugh development. The two student complexes on both sides of the road means there is a car ratio of 52 people per car space.

“Where are all these visitors going to park over the summer? This will have a shocking impact on our family estates, many of our residents are retired, older people. This will tear apart our communities.

“This will be the biggest student campus in the city and it’s the furthest distance from the university. It’s unfair to both students and the residents. A student going to the Dangan playing pitches or the biomedical science block would have to do a roundtrip of up to 6km. It’s a 25-minute walk to the library, not 15 minutes as stated in the application.

“It makes no sense to build that size of a student village that far away from the University of Galway, with no infrastructure or amenities to cope. It’s houses we need, not another expensive student village.”

There are already 130 student spaces at the Menlo Park Hotel and 1,037 spaces at Cuirt and Gort na Coiribe student complexes.

Last April Hubble Living on the Headford Road – formerly known as Cúirt na Coiribe – bowed to pressure and dropped plans to impose astronomical hikes of up to 30% on rents for the next academic year. Instead, they increased fees by 2%, which is the maximum hike allowed in a rent pressure zone.

The residents gathered to hand in their submission opposing the second development to the planning department of Galway City Council on Wednesday.

Before the Dáil sat for the last time, Sinn Féin Deputy Mairéad Farrell told Taoiseach Simon Harris that Galway is following in the footsteps of Cork and Dublin which both have more vulture fund-owned student accommodation than beds owned by the universities.

“The issue here is that for students and people in the local community, they do not have the access to affordable accommodation to rent or to buy. This kind of development deliver neither of these things. It is also in a Gaeltacht area.

“How is it possible for vulture fund-led accommodation of 1,000 beds to adhere to Irish language-speaking guidelines for a Gaeltacht area?”

Pictured: Protestors line the road this week to voice their objections to a second mass development of high-rise student accommodation.