City Council moving to Mervue

The development is well serviced by two bus routes, don't forget.

I thought they were talking about joining up both the county and city councils there a few years ago, anyone know if this is still happening?

City Hall is small, been in a few times about 10yr or more ago now. It has not a great design in the first place. Its a big site, as much space is given over to surface Car parking as to the footprint of the office itself. Good place for housing, am sure they can get close to that no of units, but maybe not that high if they go with a public building on College Road itself like a Library, have a nice green park area at the back of the City Hall site between it and Forster Court so would be able to have that amenity for the residents.

I think your missing the main comparison point that NellyBellyJelly is making regarding locations of City and County Hall. The Proposed City Hall will be closer to the County boundary than County Hall will be and vice-versa. County Hall as it stands is smack bang in the City Centre(Eyre Square).

Look at slide 9, an aerial photo, start of section 3.

There seem to be a lot of green fields?

There are several behind the Connacht hotel? Are these sports grounds in Mervue?

But there are also further green fields on the very left, behind Mervue church?

Also behind Moneen ETB and Chadwick's?

Also opposite Wellpark SC, at the Brothers/Daughters of Charity?

Seems to be plenty of space for hundreds of apts?

Yep, all sports grounds or amenities.

This all sounds very dodgy. Surely this is the type of project that would be planned many years in advance and wouldn't need a rushed vote to purchase private office space...?

Are non public facing city council workers being offered hybrid working options?

The cynic in me feels like it's being moved to give the city senior officials (most of which don't live in Galway City) easy access to the motorway to avoid the commuter traffic that they've failed to address.

Maybe I should have said easier.

Well it is better than city center or the west...

To me this is a stupid idea... We are taking the main public administration office out of the centre of the city and moving it further away from town... This just encourages more car journeys..

"They will fund it by cutting back on other services, by not recruiting more staff, or not investing in useful projects and infrastructure important to the people in communities they are elected to serve.

Is there anyone brave enough to call a halt to this vanity project, before it’s too late?"

Brendan is due to retire soon, but his senior colleagues are also commuting in from the east.

Is there something dodgy about the way this move happened out of nowhere??

https://connachttribune.ie/city-hall-crown-move-is-out-of-their-control/

Well you have the likes of Cllr Cheevers giving out this week that there isn't enough funding for gritting buy also voting in favour of this loan which will cost the city €2m for 30 years. The cost of interest on the loan is around €17m.

Are they intending to sell the old site to pay off the loan early? Or is this already factored in?

Is Mervue the absolute best location for this? Is it best located for the public to access any in-person services? How does it compare to a purpose built building? It all seems very knee-jerk.

This is at a time when many offices are downscaling their office footprint and embracing the change to remote and hybrid work (for non public-facing roles).

It’s not the location that’s nuts, it’s the cost of it and the fact that it was so out of the blue, even to the councillors and to most of the staff there.

Im almost thinking I’m verging into conspiracy theory here, but something just doesn’t add up!

And of the current site, IIRC, when the vote on the move was put to the elected members, it was fudged with vague promises that College Rd could be used for social housing, and as soon as the vote was passed, the city manager poured cold water over that very idea.

GBFM finally giving this some coverage. They didn't mention how much this is costing us.

Exactly a mess going to be made of College road traffic system and they are vacating city hall before they have to endure it themselves...

"hoodwinked" - lol

The councillors need to start doing their job and not blindly following every instruction from Brendan McGrath. They should be scrutinising any proposals coming from exec and clarifying what they're voting on before they vote.

Even when they do have their own motions they get letters from the chief exec just before votes, steering them on what to vote.

Tail wagging the dog yet again.

Eh? Most multinationals set up in business parks around the city, because of perceived better transport links.

Yes, there are a few office based ones have come into the centre recently, but they are most at risk of leaving as the rise of remote working has its effects.