As part of an exciting new project, Galway City Council is partnering with local residents and young people to ‘green’ city laneways.
The public are being invited to transform their streets into vibrant, playful and nature-friendly spaces for all of the community to enjoy.
The premise of the project is for local residents and young people to plant flowers, shrubs and an ‘edible landscape’ with the help of Galway City Council Parks staff. They will then take over the maintenance of the planting in the future.
The community will also be involved in painting vibrant, nature-based murals along the laneways with the help of professional artists.
Tiarnan McCusker, Environmental Awareness Officer with Galway City Council, said that as far they were aware, no such initiative has been undertaken in Ireland before now.
“It’s very much a community-led approach whereby Galway City Council will liaise with local residents, schools, libraries, community centres and youth groups to ascertain how they would like these laneways to be improved.”
If they project gets a strong “buy in” from the local community, particularly young people he added, then it can create a “strong sense of ownership” which will hopefully see a drop in littering, dumping and graffiti, and increased biodiversity.
The money for the ‘Greening the Laneways’ project is being provided by the government through the Anti-Dumping Initiative 2021.
To start things off, this Saturday, September 18 will see a community action day taking place in the Rocky Road in Westside from 11am.
This event will involve local residents and young people putting a splash of colour in the area with planting and mural painting.
“The actions days are a chance for locals to be involved in transforming these sometimes dull and unstimulating spaces into something the whole community can be proud of,” Tiernan McClusker said.
