Join Us for A Protest Tomorrow (Mon) to ensure that Local Community Facilities Belong to Local Communities

Protest by Ballinfoile Mór residents  for Recreational & Community facilities outside City Hall in 1989

Please join residents of Ballinfoile Mór-Castlegar and people from across Galway city at 2.30pm tomorrow (Monday) for a gathering outside City Hall who will be calling on councillors to ensure that the new Ballinfoile/Castlegar Neighbourhood/Sports Centre and other city community facilities such as Knocknacarra and Westside remain in public ownership for the benefit of local communities.

We are concerned that the latest proposal being put forward by officials for a public-private partnership is the first step along the slippery slope to privatisation. If this happens, residents will be priced out of usage of a much needed multi-purpose community and sports facility that they have lobbying/protesting for since 1986, which represents probably the longest running local residents’ campaign in Ireland during modern times, as profit will take priority over social needs.

Protest by Ballinfoile Mór residents for Recreational & Community facilities outside City Hall in 1989

In 1989 a concerted community campaign (see photo of campaigners outside City Hall in July 1989 including me!) did secure an agreement, eleven years after the first housing estates appeared, to immediately build outdoor recreational facilities including tennis courts, children playgrounds, park-lands, sports playing fields with associated changing rooms. But not indoor facilities.
The final decision on the centre’s future will have to made soon. We were informed though by Mayor Frank Fahy yesterday that the council is postponing a decision until the February meeting as its CEO has been involved for the last month as a member of the national coordinating group in tackling flood relief and understandably did not have the necessary time to complete a preparatory report on the facility. But nevertheless, activists feel that it is vital that we continue to make our feelings on this issue known to local councillors and to contine with the protest tomorrow outside City Hall. So please make every effort to attend and encourage others (family, friends and neighbours) to do likewise. Even if you are not from our area, we would appreciate your support as this issue is about ensuring that every citizen of Ireland has a basic right to community and recreational facilities which is increasingly threatened due to the cutback to public services as a result of the last government’s decision to force taxpayers to pay for the gambling debts of a rich well connected elite of bankers and property speculators. Local government authorities such as Galway City Council are being slowly chipped away via public jobs embargoes and decreasing funds to such an extent that, within a few years, they will be reduced to the role of glorified supervisory agents staffed by a few people contracting out vital utility services to companies some of which are owned by the very people that bankrupt the country.

Protest leader Brendan Smith with Councillor Jimmy Brick at Ballinfoile Mór residents protest for Recreational & Community facilities outside City Hall in 1989

Demands
So we want to ensure that councillors keep by the commitments made by CEO Brendan Mc Grath at the November budget meeting that:
- peak hours will be retained for local groups/individuals
- Low rental fees would be charged to local groups/individuals
- People from the locality must be well represented on the oversight/management board.
Furthermore we request that:
- local community representation makes up at least 50% of the oversight board
- the new jobs that will accrue in this facility will be given to local people where possible.
- the facility remains in public ownership.
If these just demands are not meet, our long struggle would have been all for nothing.

Councillor Michael D. Higgins (now President of Ireland) with Councillor Bridie Flaherty (on left) at the community protest by Ballinfoile Mór residents for Recreational & Community facilities outside City Hall in 1989

Planning: The Continent Way

Since the construction of the first housing estate in the locality in the late 1970s, compulsory charges were placed on house sales to pay for recreational facilities for all age groups. But it is a sad reflection on the Irish planning system that such leisure complexes and other vital community infrastructure such as schools, cycleways and parks are not put in place in advance of housing development as is the case in many other European countries. In Austria for instance the state ensures that land speculators do not make huge profits from rezoning by setting a maximum price valuation on land with the monies thus saved being invested into local communities. In our case we are saddened that generations have been born into and have left our neighbourhood without having ever enjoyed the joys of local indoor sports. Hence we feel that it is only right and just that, after waiting decades for a facility paid in part by residents’ contributions, that we should have a key role to play in the management of this long awaited local authority owned centre which is nearing completion and expected to be open within weeks. Otherwise it is a negation of local democracy. A community resource, whose purpose is to serve first and foremost the recreational and community needs of all ages living in the surrounding neighbourhoods, should have the direct involvement of local inhabitants in its present and future development. When we started the campaign Ireland in the 1980s, Ireland was a radically different country. It was primarily a homogeneous cultural society and we want to ensure that the recreational facilities fulfils the needs of all traditions in our society, both new as well as old. Furthermore while we welcome the agreement of central government to recently sanction the hiring of by Galway City Council of staff for the community centre, we are amazed that no additional funding was allocated forcing the local authority to consider outside private contractors to operate the facilities.

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