Fears on impact of Eyre Square plan

CIE and Bus Eireann have expressed serious concerns about Galway Corporation's £2.5 million plan to transform Eyre Square, and about the impact of new traffic systems on public transport in the city.

Bus Eireann has said the proposed changes - which were approved by the city council last year - would "do nothing to encourage or promote the use of public transport" in the city. Instead, they would cause further congestion around Eyre Square, according to correspondence obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

CIE also criticised the effect of design on its property, particularly access by vehicles to the bus maintenance facility off Eyre Square. It described the proposed extension of pedestrian paving and bus bays fronting on to the square as misplaced, and said the proposed layout was not acceptable in terms of its impact on bus and rail operations.

Significantly, the correspondence obtained by the Galway Cycling Campaign includes repeated requests by Mr Sean Gleeson, Bus Eireann's area manager, to meet Galway's former city manager, Mr Joe Gavin, and/or his officials. Mr Gleeson has confirmed to The Irish Times that he had been "unhappy" with the level of consultation between the former city manager and the company on Eyre Square and on "a variety of topics relating to public transport in Galway".

This extended to the Buchanan land use and transportation study which was published several years ago but has, as yet, to be given serious consideration by the local authority. Only recently was Bus Eireann asked to respond to it, but it is expected that the study will have to be reviewed in the light of the radically altered transport environment and population growth in the city and surrounds.

Mr Gleeson is optimistic about a "climate change", following the appointment of the new city manager, Mr John Tierney. However, Mr Tierney was unavailable for comment on Bus Eireann's concerns.

EU funding has still to be obtained for the landscaping project, but the Galway Cycling Campaign has lodged a complaint with the European Commission, and has included in its submission copies of the letters sent by Bus Eireann and CIE to Galway Corporation.

Unveiled in January 1999, the draft project - by Mitchell and Associates, the Dublin landscape architects, and Muir Associates, consulting engineers - aimed to transform the square into a series of plazas on a European theme and to return the urban space to pedestrians. The plan included provision for a sculpture park and development of informal wooded areas, but it also involved a change in traffic flow and installation of pedestrian lights to replace zebra crossings. This is to accommodate closure of the western carriageway.

There is general agreement that the Georgian square needs some sort of transformation.

However, the Galway Cycling Campaign is one of several environmental groups highly critical of the lack of consultation.

When Galway councillors approved the scheme last June, they were unaware of reservations expressed by the Corporation's heritage officer, Mr Jim Higgins, in relation to aspects of the proposed landscaping and the need for archaeological testing well in advance. The Galway Environmental Alliance said it was shocked at this, and expressed concern about retention of existing trees and the safety aspects of traffic light pedestrian crossings.

Both the cycling campaign and the environmental alliance quote studies from Manchester and London which show there is a dramatic increase in pedestrian accidents when zebra crossings are replaced with traffic lights or "pelicans". Mr Shane Foran, safety officer with the cycling campaign, quotes from one English study which revealed that over one-third of men and two-thirds of women struck by traffic at pelican crossings were hit when the "green man" was showing.

"It is clear that traffic speeds up when pelican crossings are introduced," Mr Foran said. "On the other hand, zebra crossings have a natural traffic-calming effect. With pelicans, the drivers are looking out for lights. With zebras, they are looking out for humans."

An Taisce's Galway branch has made several calls for commissioning of an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) on the plans, and has appealed to the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, to withhold any State funding for the project until "proper planning procedures" are put in place.

"It is our view, and the view of many other organisations and individuals in Galway, that this particular project is of such significance to the city as to demand a full assessment of the likely environmental effects," Mr Derrick Hambleton, chairman of An Taisce's Galway branch, says.

This impact may extend beyond Kennedy Park/Eyre Square itself, he says. He cites the 1999 judgment on the Dublin "Spike" in the action taken by Mr Miche al O Nuallain against Dublin Corporation, as further justification of the need for an EIA. The European Court of Justice has already criticised Ireland for setting lower threshold limits on projects requiring EIAs.

In its own submission on Eyre Square, lodged a year ago with the corporation, An Taisce said it was in favour of change to revitalise the square's image, but noted that not enough thought had gone into the need for a complete review of traffic management in and around the city, including the need for park and ride facilities. It also expressed fears that too many mature trees would be lost, and noted the "unbelievable lack of provision for a children's play area".

It appealed for a delay on this "undoubtedly important project" until Galway agreed to appoint a city architect.