FINE Gael councillor Sarah Kiely has called on the Council to immediately abolish road closure feels for events as a move to help the city thrive.
At this Monday’s Metropolitan District meeting, Cllr Kiely also questioned the council executive on the average fee to businesses and voluntary organisations for road closures for events.
According to Senior Executive Engineer for Roads, Liam Browne, the fee charged for road closures for events is the cost of the advertisement of the two statutory notices in a newspaper.
“This cost will vary for each road closure depending on the number of words required in the notices. The typical cost would not exceed €1,500 if advertised in a local newspaper. Please note this cost would significantly increase if the notices are advertised in a national newspaper,” he added.
Following on from this, Cllr Kiely, whose motion had been deferred to the Travel and Transportation Strategic Policy Committee (SPC), asked for it to be heard at Metropolitan level.
“I would like to have my motion heard today please as it has been incorrectly referred to an SPC — where motions go to die as we all know,” she told council members.
“When I asked why my motion was being referred to the SPC, I was told it was a policy issue and a policy already existed on it so it would need to be amended. After contacting numerous people within the local authority to get a copy, I was eventually told there is no policy on road closures.
“The facts here are as follows: Road closures are a statutory requirement and there is a process. There is a list of documents required to apply for the closures, and the local authority with the Gardaí are tasked with the road closures statutory process.”
Cllr Kiely then went on to outline what she considered the grey areas.
“No information was easily available to me, an elected representative. No information is easily available to members of voluntary groups, community groups, businesses, festival organisers if they haven’t previously received a road closure. The document provided to me eventually is called ‘Road Closure Application Requirements’ — I wasn’t shown an application form.”
The City East representative also pointed out that Bord Fáilte had recently met with potential festival organisers to discuss the night-time economy. One of the outcomes of this meeting, she said, was the lack of engagement from Limerick City and County Council on road closures.
“There is no clear direction to assist with the possibility of new events for the city. We constantly hear about how Galway does this that and the other. We need to be masters of our own destiny and stop trying to hamper people who want to put on festivals and events. We are the third city. Let’s start acting like that.
“When I asked about cost, I was told the cost is €1,500 and no profit is made from this cost and no admin fee is charged. I spoke with another councillor and he said he was told it was €500. I’ve seen an invoice for €600. Some organisations have not been charged at all for road closures, so that is why I’m bringing this motion forward.”
Cllr Kiely concluded by calling for a fair playing field which will allow more events to happen more easily without the barrier of the unknown cost.
Social Democrats councillor Elisa O’Donovan seconded the motion and took the view it was really relevant to the Metropolitan District. The fee for road closures, she believes, is a huge impediment to those looking to run events in the city.
Green Party councillor Saša Novak Uí Chonchúir, who is chair of the Travel and Transportation SPC, took the view that this motion was more an issue for Economic Development as it related to investment and how to enable city businesses to thrive.
Cllr Novak also felt the fee should be waived altogether or there should just be a nominal fee.
