Residents oppose cancer facility over traffic issue

A residents' association has appealed planning permission for a 30-bed lodge for cancer patients and their families on the grounds of University College Hospital, Galway.

Galway City Council granted permission to Cancer Care West last month for the €3.5 million Inis Aoibheann lodge, which accommodates radiotherapy patients from all over the western seaboard who have to travel to UCHG for treatment at its new radiotherapy unit.

The original planning application for the lodge had to be withdrawn because of objections from local residents on the issues of traffic and access. A new application was submitted.

Now the Shantalla Residents' Association has appealed the decision to An Bord Pleanála, mainly on the grounds of concerns over the traffic implications of the project.

The public relations officer of the association, Cllr Colette Connolly, said there was utter disbelief that the local authority could grant permission allowing more traffic on to Costello Road despite continuous requests to the City Hall to address the widespread abuse by motorists of their residential neighbourhood.

In its appeal, the association says access to the development should be from the two existing principal entrances at UCHG and it has sought for such a condition to be attached to planning permission.

The appeal also says that planning permission for the clinical science block at UCHG expired in 1995, at which time it was recommended that the entrance be closed permanently and a traffic management plan implemented by the Western Health Board. However, no such action was taken.

The appeal notes a serious increase in traffic along Costello Road as a result of development in the area, particularly the extension to the Westside Shopping Centre, the Buck Property site encompassing Aldi and the Westside Business Centre.

The association says it is a pity that it has to resort to an appeal once again to An Bord Pleanála in an attempt to protect the residential neighbourhood.

Ms Connolly said: "It would seem that the planning department in the City Hall are set to continue to ignore the rights of residents despite a guarantee in the city development plan to protect old established areas such as Shantalla from such encroachment.

"Indeed the SRA has been vindicated on six separate occasions by An Bord Pleanála in relation to developments in the area."

Permission for the lodge had been welcomed by local cancer specialists who said it would be of enormous benefit to patients and their families in the west.