Galway City Council workers will protest outside City Hall next Monday against the move to the proposed Crown Square site in Mervue.
Forsa trade union has said that if the council moves to the Crown Square site, it will make it more difficult for people living in the city to access services, while also generating more traffic.
The union has organised a lunchtime protest at the council premises on Monday (10th March @1.30pm), ahead of a meeting of the council at 3pm.
In a recent survey of members, Fórsa said the view of council staff is that the proposed relocation is not in the best interests of service users and has criticised the lack of consultation with staff and other stakeholders about the move.
Three quarters of the staff surveyed confirmed the move would make them consider applying for posts outside of the council.
Fórsa official Padraig Mulligan said, “Galway City Council has made a very serious error of judgement by pushing ahead with a move that nobody wants.”
“It failed to consult its own staff, it failed to consult its own councillors in any meaningful way, and it is failing the people of Galway City by ignoring their needs.”
Fórsa said that the move would “hollow out our city centre and force staff and service users onto heavily congested roads to access services in a business park with limited public transport.”
The survey of members at the council found that two-thirds of staff said the move would increase their journey time to work.
Almost half of the council staff said their journey time would increase by 30 minutes to an hour, while a similar number confirmed it would increase their commute costs and necessitate a change to how they travelled to work, most of whom said they would need to drive a car to work.
Mr Mulligan described these findings as evidence of council management’s failure to consider the climate action implications of the move, because the inevitable increase in private traffic would increase emissions in the city.
