Galway city council moving ahead with its second attempt at busking bylaws for the city centre.
The council has published a new set of draft bylaws governing busking on the city’s protected streetscape.
It was raised at a meeting of the city council in January that the busking bylaws passed by the council last year had to be scrapped.
This was because when they were initially voted in they didn’t include a commencement date.
Councillors expressed extreme anger at the time that the process had to begin again after the length and bitterness of the first debate.
For these new bylaws, the text that was already passed is being used as the draft rather than going back to the drawing board altogether.
The proposed bylaws will be available to view at city hall between 9am and 4pm until Friday, March 1.
During this period of public consultation people can make submissions about the bylaws up until Friday, March 8.
Submissions should be made to the Environment & Climate Change Section of the city council, or online at galwaycity.ie/busking.
The Galway Buskers Community, a group representing buskers and street performers in the city, has pledged to fight this second attempt at busking bylaws.
A statement from the groups read, “Despite a majority of public submissions being against them last time (conservatively over 95% against), despite their bye-laws being revoked, and despite our constant attempts to work with them, to talk to them, and to reach a compromise, the Galway City Council have put forward the exact same bylaws for public submission.”
“We will not allow these horribly restrictive bye-laws to be ’slipped in the back door’ and ruin busking in our beautiful city,” the statement ended.
