LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Restore the Palace Road Dear Editor, On behalf of the Restore the Palace Road committee, we would like to respond to an article written by Mr Galvin in last week's issue. He refers to sleep-walking politicians but the fact is that these politicians voted for a large development in the centre of town including retail outlets, a hotel, a nursing home and a large green area providing safe access from Bishop Street to the Palace Grounds for pedestrians. This would have supplied many vital jobs to our town. What they, and we, got is an unsafe, unnecessary, unpopular, unapproved, ugly car-park. Whether you'd prefer the proposed town-centre development to the road that existed there is up to yourself, but the councillors would have felt compelled to vote for such a lucrative plan that would help to stop shoppers leaving Tuam. The article quotes minutes from a council meeting held in Killimor and wrongly gives the impression that the right of way was extinguished at this meeting but a careful read of those minutes [quoted in the article] clearly points out that there is an 'expectation' of the extinguishment of the right of way. Our group are aware of this and are acting in advance to warn the public of the plan to remove the right of way and to call on them to support our cause. Since the planned major development has now been replaced by an ugly car park for which there is no planning permission, we believe there is no compulsion on the local councillors to now support a motion to extinguish this right of way. In fact it is vital that it is retained as the change of plan has changed everything in this area. We all appreciate the reporting work The Tuam Herald does week in, week out, but we fail to find any recent reference to the removal of the Old Palace Road in lieu of an extensive car park or the publication of the plans which indicated this. There is no allowance for a temporary car park in this location in the planning file. This means that prior to the destruction of the Palace Road and the subsequent development of the car-park the laws which govern developments such as this state clearly that 'A site notice must be erected on the subject site and submissions from prescribed bodies and the public may be received during a six-week public consultation period'. This did not happen and the people of Tuam were denied their voice as afforded to them by law! If the laws and processes were properly implemented as they should have been, then the people of Tuam would have made numerous submissions to preserve the right of way along with the aesthetic and historical features which sat upon it, and a suitable compromise could have been reached between the developers, the council and the townspeople. The chosen location for our protest [at Bishop Street] should have been obvious as this is where the right of way commences. It had nothing to do with SuperValu, their staff and their customers as implied in the article. Furthermore we refute heavily that this campaign is anti-worker as this campaign and its supporters (numbering in the thousands) is in fact made up of workers. Workers whom have lived, worked, employed, supported, cherished, built, embraced, loved and volunteered their time to building a better town. The Restore The Road group has only two aims, to retain the right of way and restore access along it. Nothing more, nothing less. We have never called for any boycott of any business and we most certainly do not want anyone to lose any business or jobs over what is a reasonable protest about a useful community asset. We have consistently called for our supporters to continue to shop locally and support local businesses. The modern internet is a great weapon and as you well know it is very difficult to control or censor. The nature of a public group on Facebook is that anyone who signs up can post and, unfortunately, a small number of people posted negative comments referring to the staff in SuperValu and calling for a boycott of the shop. These posts were moderated and deleted shortly after they appeared each time, as were abusive and misleading comments in the opposite direction. We regret any fears that these comments may have caused and wish to alleviate them emphatically, as Kevin O'Dwyer did so clearly and eloquently at the gathering on Friday evening. We continue to call on those who support our cause to lobby their local Councillors and to call on their support as we have done since the start of this protest. Tuam Town Council are currently endeavouring to set up a meeting with the local Councillors and with Galway County Officials so that the history of how this happened might be explored and brought into the light and also to allow the group to make their point in seeking support for the retention of the right of way. We would like to point out that since this protest was born there has been a rushed re-development in the newly built car-park to provide some semblance of our demands and the bollards that were erected so hastily and sealed the car park after business hours no longer go up. From our point of view this is an admission that what we have said and sought is legitimate and these efforts are simply an attempt to bolt the stable door after the horse has bolted. The right of way still exists from Bishop Street to the Palace Bridge through what the planners have allowed to be an unapproved car-park. Those who wish to support its retention can simply do so by writing or e-mailing the seven local councillors (Cllrs Tom McHugh, Sean Canney, Peter Roche, Mary Hoade, Shaun Cunniffe, Tiernan Walsh and Michael Connolly) and instruct them that when the vote comes up for the extinguishment of the Palace Road public right of way they must vote against the motion and preserve this public right of way. For if they vote yes to the extinguishment of the right of way they will have failed in their duty of care to the public and will be thus implicated in aiding and abetting an unauthorised development. Signed, Steve Lane Kevin O'Dwyer Thomas Niland Leo Moran on behalf of the wider Restore the Palace Road committee