Galway Races take High Court action over city ring road plan

Galway Race Committee say construction of tunnel under Ballybrit will result in loss of stables

The Galway Races Summer Festival at Ballybrit Racecourse. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

Tim Healy

February 08 2022 03:23 PM

Two High Court actions have been brought over the granting of planning permission for the Galway City Ring Road.

The court granted the Galway Race Committee permission to proceed with a judicial review of An Bord Pleanála’s permission for the €600m route which would run from the existing M6 east of the city to Barna in the west.

The Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE) has lodged separate proceedings against the board, Ireland and the Attorney General over the approval. Its application seeking leave has been adjourned until Monday.

The race committee, represented by Dermot Flanagan SC, is taking its case against An Bord Pleanála. It seeks to quash the board’s December 2021 decision to approve the road development and the county council’s N6 Galway City Ring Road Motorway Scheme 2018 and Protected Road Scheme 2018.

Mr Justice Richard Humphreys granted leave permitting judicial review to be brought.

In documents before the court, the committee said part of the proposed road development involves the construction of a 240-metre tunnel under the Galway Racecourse at Ballybrit, to the north of the racetrack. It said its current stables would be lost as a consequence of the tunnel’s construction.

It alleges that the planning board “erred” in failing to provide appropriate mitigation for the racecourse as part of the approval for the road development.

The board has failed, the committee claims, to supply reasoned conclusions for rejecting the recommendations of its own inspector by excluding from the permitted development the permanent acquisition of certain lands, referred to as Plot 713, for the provision of permanent stables for the racecourse

Galway County Council “engaged extensively” with the committee in the years leading to the publication of the Motorway/Protective Roads Scheme, in relation to various options in circumstances where the proposed route would involve the demolition of 124 stables next to the Ballybrit main stand, the applicant claims.

The committee said the motorway/protected road scheme and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report published in September 2018 and submitted to the board at the beginning of the statutory process included proposals for temporary and permanent stables on identified lands as part of the road project.

The committee claims the board’s alleged failure to provide adequate reasons for excluding the proposed permanent stables and proposed permanent acquisition of Plot 713 is a breach of its duty.

Further among its grounds of challenge is a number of points of EU law, including that the board’s decision is invalid due to its alleged failure to conduct an EIA in accordance with Article 1 of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Directive.

The committee also claims the board acted in breach of the public participation requirements of the EIA Directive and the Aarhus Convention in allegedly failing to provide any opportunity for the committee and/or the Road Authority to address the “profound impacts” of its decision to exclude the replacement stables.

Mr Justice Humphreys adjourned the matter for two weeks.