Galway Bay fm newsroom - City officials have stood firm amid calls for the reinstallation of temporary flood lighting at Cappagh Park.
It’s after around 200 members of Knocknacarra Football Club protested outside City Hall ahead of the council’s monthly meeting yesterday afternoon.
At a meeting of Galway City Council, it was confirmed the local authority will not permit the reinstallation of temporary lighting at the facility on legal grounds.
Last November, Galway City Council issued a notice to Knocknacarra Football Club that their licence would be suspended if they did not remove temporary lights which the club had installed at Cappagh Park.
The notice was issued on the grounds that planning permission and appropriate environmental assessment was required for such lighting due to the park’s adjacency to a Special Area of Conservation.
Since the lighting was removed, members of Knocknacarra FC, as well as city councillors, have been calling for a solution while up to 900 children have been left without an appropriate training facility during dark winter evenings.
At a meeting of the city council, elected members pleaded with city officials to reinstall the lights with immediate effect to allow the children of Knocknacarra to train for the remainder of the dark evenings.
Fianna Fáil Cllr Peter Keane described the situation as nothing short of a car crash while Mayor of Galway Mike Cubbard said he was ashamed that the city council was hindering the growth of the club.
Fine Gael Cllr Clodagh Higgins reminded the Chamber that anti-social behaviour needed to be stamped out in the area and Knocknacarra FC certainly aided that, while Labour Cllr Niall McNelis alluded to the benefits of exercise in terms of physical and mental health.
However, city officials remain firm in their stance that on the grounds of planning law and EU regulations, the temporary lights cannot be reinstalled without an appropriate planning application which may take months to process.
A temporary solution to use the facility’s at Miller’s Lane was offered to the club, however, it was rejected.
An application for permanent lighting at Cappagh Park is being processed with the installation expected to be complete by September of this year – subject to appropriate environmental assessment and approval from the planning authority.
Chief Executive of the local authority, Brendan McGrath, has also committed to meeting with the football club as soon as possible to explore other solutions.
