Galway City Council should open the toilets at Ballyloughane Beach every weekend, following an outcry for three successive weekends this year when the existing facilities have been closed to the public, it was claimed yesterday.
Councillor Terry O’Flaherty told the Advertiser that the closure was causing a huge amount of inconvenience for the many people who like to go for walks in the area, especially when the facilities at Salthill are open all the time.
“When I raised this matter before about the toilets not opening at weekends, while the ones in Salthill are open, the reason I was given was that the toilets in Salthill do not require a contractor to open and close them, unlike the ones in Ballyloughane.
“In that case it is about time that new up to date public toilets, the kind that work automatically similar to the ones in Salthill, were installed in Ballyloughane.
“Other councillors have also been calling for this, and there was funding included in the 2021/2022 budget for this facility, but it appears that this area is given a lesser priority, once again,” added Cllr O’Flaherty.
“It’s not a big ask to have the toilets open at weekends, when that’s the very time that most people frequent this area.
“There are new walks around the Mellows pitches that are widely used for walkers and quite a number of elderly use this facility on a daily basis and particularly over the weekends throughout the year,” said the Independent Councillor.
Cllr O’Flaherty pointed out that a motion she proposed at a meeting of Galway City Council almost a year ago, calling for the Ballyloughane toilets to be kept open at weekends, had been passed unanimously by her fellow councillors.
