Galway to Oughterard Greenway: First stage of consultation runs until March 22

Non-statutory public consultation on the Galway to Oughterard Greenway is now underway, with a questionnaire open until Tuesday, March 22. The route which should be around 30km will form part of the Connemara Greenway.

The project team said: “Galway County Council, in conjunction with Galway City Council, now invite the residents of the local area, members of the public and other interested parties to participate in a non-statutory public consultation on the Study Area and Constraints for the Galway to Oughterard Greenway project from Monday 28th February 2022 to Tuesday 22nd March 2022. Your participation in this consultation is important and we would value any feedback which you think should be reviewed by the project team to help inform the development of the project.”

The project team said that as part of the work to date, consultants Aecom has defined a study area and are currently “in the process of identifying the artificial and natural constraints as well as any external parameters, which relate to this study area. These external parameters include (but are not limited to) economic, engineering and environmental constraints.”

According to the project’s website, following the above-mentioned stage, the Option Selection Phase will “involve a detailed assessment of the options in order to identify an Emerging Preferred Route Corridor. The Emerging Preferred Route will go on display during a third period of non-statutory public consultation and the public will be invited to make submissions or comment on the Emerging Preferred Route before a Preferred Option is finalised at Stage 3.”

The project team said that the process will be carried out in line with the Code of Best Practice for National and Regional Greenways agreed with farming groups. They said that the use of state-owned lands where possible and lands acquired by voluntary agreements will “deliver the majority of the lands required for the Greenway”.

For more details see the project website, galwaytooughterardgreenway.ie.

IMAGE: The study area.

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