BY ENDA CUNNINGHAM
 

A masterplan which will see the extension of the city centre to encompass the Headford Road and surrounding areas – including a new link road between the Dyke Road and Quincentenary Bridge – is likely to be ready within 12 months.

And city officials are confident that the €200 million redevelopment of Galway Shopping Centre – an integral part of the plan – will go ahead, despite the economic downturn.

Galway City Council is currently carrying out a flood assessment and a study of infrastructural requirements of the entire Headford Road area, before they decide on the ‘vision’ for development over the next 20 to 30 years.

Director of Services for Planning, Tom Connell, told the Galway City Tribune: “There is still a draft masterplan in place, but we didn’t proceed further because new legislation said we had to carry out flood assessments, and the transport and roads issues were subject to further discussions. The plan was parked until the flood assessment was carried out.

Private consultants were hired by the Council in early 2008 to come up with a ‘Framework Plan’ that would provide a vision for the area – including Headford Road, Quincentenary Bridge, Dyke Road, Seán Mulvoy Road, Bóthar na mBan, St. Bridget’s Terrace, Galway Retail Park and Galway Shopping Centre – and provide an extension to the city centre.

However, the plans were effectively halted when the Framework Plan was ‘downgraded’ to a Local Area Plan, and by the effects of the property crash and recession.

Mr Connell said that private developers will be responsible for driving the plan forward, and the redevelopment of the Galway Shopping Centre is key to this.

He said he met with representatives of Harcourt Developments earlier this year, and he was reassured that the project – which will quadruple the size of the shopping centre – will go ahead.

For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.