A group of residents in Galway city centre yesterday staged a protest against development works which involve paving a green area alongside the Corrib river. The section of the grassy riverbank being paved runs from the Salmon Weir Bridge to Steamer's Quay.
The works are part of Galway Corporation's £750,000 Riverside Walk project, which will eventually extend from O'Brien's Bridge to Steamer's Quay.
However, the people of Woodquay are totally opposed to the alterations to a green belt that has been cherished by local residents for generations. They claim they were not properly consulted before the works began last Friday.
They have appealed to the corporation "not to fix what is not broken" and to spend the money repairing wooden seats in the area.
A spokeswoman, Ms Sheila Gallagher, said the area was frequented by many elderly people from the city centre who would not be able to sit on cold, backless limestone slabs.
"Galway is the fastest-growing city in Europe and it is going to be the greyest city in Europe because every square inch is being built on, including grass, and what is left is being cobblestoned," she said. "In the summer, staff from offices and shops all over the city come down here to sit on the grass and get a bit of sunshine.
"There is a rare kingfisher down there and a bird called a dipper. What are they going to eat when the hawthorn bushes they would have lived on for the winter have been dumped into the river? Fifteen types of grass that the birds and insects lived on down there have been taken out."
The acting city manager, Mr P.J. McGovern, said the plans for the project were on display at City Hall for a month and a public notice had been advertised giving people six weeks to make submissions. The city council passed the scheme, having received no submissions. It was only when work started that the residents voiced their disapproval, he said.
Corporation officials met the residents yesterday to explain exactly what was involved in the scheme. Mr McGovern said 92 per cent of the existing green space would be retained, by removing bushes and shrubbery and extending the grass.