Galway's rapid growth may lead to increased crime in the absence of adequate social and economic planning, writes Lorna Siggins
Take two cities on the western seaboard, less than 70 miles apart. One synonymous with serious crime, one with a serious commitment to "quality of life", and with a thriving economy to support it. Imagine the shock reaction then to the recent warning that Galway could become a "ghetto-like" society with "Limerick-style" lawlessness.
Cheerful prophet of doom was the chairman of Galway's branch of an Taisce, Derrick Hambleton. Fundamental changes in the city's approach to planning and transport are required if "disaster" is to be avoided, he warned.
"Unfortunate," is how Galway city manager John Tierney describes Hambleton's analogy and he takes issue with some of his claims. But Prof Ulf Strohmayer of NUI, Galway, pays tribute to An Taisce's foresight in drawing such a stark comparison.
"Limerick, which has many positive aspects such as its new waterfront development, has followed a very different trajectory to that of Galway since 1922," says Prof Strohmayer, head of the university's geography department. "But it is not right to say that the sort of breakdown in society that has occurred there would never happen here. In that sense, An Taisce is to be congratulated if it stimulates that sort of debate."
Still regarded as the fastest-growing city for its scale in Europe, Galway is spreading rapidly. The apparent lack of plans for essential community services, growing traffic problems and a deficit in public transport are among the problems in the immediate city area highlighted by Hambleton's group. For example, the city council recently adopted a transportation study that is already out of date, according to An Taisce, as the rate of population increase has already surpassed its projected estimates.
The underlying fear is that Galway may not be able to sustain its economic success and, without proper infrastructure and social planning, crime levels could increase. The fact that 60 per cent of the population is under 35 years of age means the potential is there for a serious drugs/alcohol problem. City councillors recently voted to install closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras as a security aid in the city centre and Salthill.
"Drug abuse is probably marginally less for the city's size and population, compared to other urban areas," Chief Supt Tom Monaghan says. "There is now a minor heroin problem in Galway. On the positive, we have community initiatives in certain areas, such as estate management strategies involving local authorities, residents and the Garda.
"The drug issue is something that the public has to be conscious of, but there are thousands of people who go about their daily lives in this city without being affected by crime, or fear of same," Chief Supt Monaghan adds. "Alcohol is still the worst drug in terms of its impact on road safety, public order and domestic violence."
Galway's new draft development plan, due to be presented to city councillors on December 15th, gives the city burghers a new opportunity to plan for the future, and Tierney argues that they are doing that. "The fact is that Galway has been chosen as a gateway in the National Spatial Strategy, and so it has to grow. The challenge is how we manage that, in terms of providing community facilities, dealing with transport, and the issue of affordable housing."
The new plan will continue to focus on development eastwards, as with the 1999 plan. Tierney acknowledges that there is concern about lack of infrastructure for the new town of Ardaun on the east side, which will straddle the city and county area and extend southwest to Oranmore. The local authority's handling of promised community facilities for the western suburb of Knocknacarra - which resulted in a protracted row with a supermarket owner over interpretation of planning permission for same facilities - has left many wondering if there is a real commitment to providing for the city's youth.
"We are putting enormous emphasis on developing communities in the new housing schemes," Tierney says. Public transport will be developed along the "Ardaun corridor", and the local authority has already spent €4 million on purchasing eight-and-a-half acres in Doughuisce for community facilities and a school. Galway is also enriched with "social capital"; a plethora of community, cultural, sporting and business networks with whom Tierney is happy to work. Through this network, the essential "vision thing", a plan for the city from 2002 to 2012, was drawn up and published last year by the Galway City Development Board. Established in March 2000, it comprises 28 representatives of state agencies, local government, social partners and local development. Garda representation on this allows for "crime proofing" of new estates, that is, input into environmental design in co-operation with city planners.
Prof Strohmayer believes that any planner would be challenged by Galway's phenomenal growth, but he is also convinced that a certain amount of responsibility lies with central government. The coalition's failure to take on the building lobby on providing a percentage of affordable housing in all new estates was a watershed, in his view.
"It means that Ireland is going to develop socially segregated suburbs, the US concept of suburbia, and concentrated ghettoes - unless that policy is changed." He believes that a "stone in a bus window" incident, which occurred in Galway city's west side several months ago, is a "tell-tale sign".
"It has been dismissed as an isolated occurrence, but it didn't happen for no reason," he says. "I am an optimist, but there is always the reality that Galway would experience an economic downturn. That's why it is so important to make every effort possible to draw up and implement a city plan which works, while the resources are there."
It is regarded as a danger zone after dark, and in daylight hours it is littered with cans and Buckfast bottles. Yet Eyre Square represents the last battleground for those passionate about, and in despair over, Galway's future.
City manager John Tierney acknowledges that it is regarded as one of the most important civic spaces in the west of Ireland and is very enthusiastic about its upcoming redesign. The Galway Environmental Alliance (GEA), comprising An Taisce, the Green Party and others, has appealed to him, and his elected councillors, to consider an alternative to the accepted plan.
The city council plan involves design of a US-style "plaza" and lawns, with removal of substantial number of the square's original trees, new plantation, and incorporation of a sculpture park which would house Pádraic Ó Conaire's statue, and a children's play area. Traffic flow will be altered to allow part of the thoroughfare to be pedestrianised. Work on the €5 million project, which will also facilitate pending roadworks to install gas and broadband infrastructure, is due to start after an informal EU Presidency council of enterprise ministers in mid-January.
The GEA has endorsed the alternative vision drawn up by Chelsea Flower Show award-winner Mary Reynolds, at her own expense. The Reynolds plan involves enclosing the park in a "Celtic-key pattern" paving detail. Ó Conaire's statue would be moved to a more central position on a stone seat wall overlooking the main park, surrounded by grass and native shrubs. The area inside the wall would be paved with granite slabs which would encircle plants.
Galway's natural link with the Atlantic is the theme of much of Reynolds's design, which would incorporate lawns moulded into flowing waves that would form natural seating and a play-area for children. She says that all hardscaping materials should be of high quality and of local extraction where possible, and all new planting should be of native species.
The city council design by Mitchell and Associates proposes replanting, to replace the stock it intends to chop, but itsselection of non-native "neat" trees is a "typical landscape architect cop-out", Reynolds says.
The city council has refused to consider Reynolds's proposal, and Tierney defends this decision on the basis that tenders were sought, a public consultation process took place, and he then commissioned an environmental-impact statement on the successful bid.
This statement was the subject of an An Bord Pleanála hearing, which endorsed the original bid, but earmarked 21 existing trees for retention. The city manager then agreed to retain four more.
"With the new ones we will plant, there will be 120 trees in the square when it is finished." However, the GEA has referred the matter to the European Commission, on the basis that an alternative should have been presented as part of the environmental impact statement.
If the Eyre Square redesign proceeds, it could become one of a growing list of what Hambleton calls "planning blunders" in Galway city, highlighting the urgent need for a city architect to be appointed. "Even Mayo county has an architect," says Hambleton.
Hambleton's "planning blunders" list includes:
The Portmore complex at Spanish Parade
An apartment complex amid the close-knit terraced-house community of Henry Street and New Road, overlooking the Eglinton Canal. All work on the development has been suspended and it is currently before An Bord Pleanála
The lack of an area development plan for Galway docks, which has allowed what the group describes as a "mish mash" of modern apartments and office blocks, without use of traditional building materials
Apartments on Headford Road behind the Lidl/Argos retail shops which resemble a prison with "high level" exposed walkways
Failure to purchase the former grammar school on College Road, next to City Hall, and the Georgian mansion, Rahoon House, either of which could house an art gallery or a planned school of music
Galway City Council cites among its positive elements:
• The Millennium playground, one of 17 which will be dotted across the city by the end of next year
• Development of green areas such as Barna Woods, Terryland Forest Park, Merlin Woods, and playing pitches in various locations.
• New libraries in Westside, and in the planned Ballybane Neighbourhood Centre which is being built in partnership with a credit union and involves 15 enterprise units
• Plans for a pedestrian bridge over the Corrib
• The city's pioneering waste-management system, which is now recording recycling/composting rates of 52 per cent