Search Results for 'Ballina Town Council'

The news that there are currently 581 people on the housing waiting list in Ballina Town council alarmed the elected members at the monthly meeting this week. Town clerk Carmel Murphy told the meeting that a review of the list is being carried out, but at present there were 581 people on the list which was a marked rise on the numbers in the recent past.

Ballina Town Council agreed to give Castlecourt residents’ association €3,300 under the capital assistance scheme for works in the estate at its monthly meeting this week. Town clerk Carmel Murphy told the meeting that the residents’ association had submitted an application under the scheme and fulfilled all the criteria required. The cost of the works that will be carried out by the association will total €6,600 with the rest of the money coming from the residents and prize money the residents won in the tidy towns competition.

The members of Ballina Town Council gave a general welcome to the refurbishment works that will be carried out on Pearse Street in the town, but expressed some reservations in relation to the time scale of the project and the positioning of the taxi rank during and after the process. Town engineer Michael O’Grady told the elected members that the public consultation period of four weeks and the submission period of another two weeks had now passed and that two submissions were received. The submissions were from the Ballina Taxi Association in regard to the position of the taxi rank in the future and Ballina Chamber of Commerce. O’Grady told the members that while the rank will have to be temporarily moved during the refurbishment process, the taxi rank issue was not part of this current process but would have to be dealt with under town council bye laws.

The elected members of Ballina Town Council narrowly passed a revised supplementary development contribution scheme at their monthly meeting. The revised plan which saw the cost of the contribution cut from €4,500 per residential unit to €3,500 was passed by a vote of five to four in the chamber after a lengthy debate. The proposal to put the item through but with a reduced charge was made by Fianna Fáil councillor Padraig Moore, which was a counter motion to Independent councillor Mary Kelly’s proposal to shelve the item for 12 months and bring it back to the council then.

For the second time in a week, the controversial new development levy scheme for all new developments in relation to water and sewerage contributions was passed by a local authority in the county, but only after a number of councillors expressed their opposition to the decision. Last week Ballina Town Council passed a reduced rate levey of €3,500 per housing unit while the council was looking for a €4,500 levey. The levey passed by the county county council according to the managers report on the scheme break down the costs so that for large schemes, the amount of the council’s contribution to the total cost of the scheme will be divided by the number of new houses to be served. While for small scheme’s it will be, the amount of the council’s contribution to the total cost divided by the number of new houses to be served, averaged over five recent small schemes developed by the council.

A woman from Ballina who claimed she asked a friend to dispose of her rubbish was convicted and fined €300 along with costs of €400, by Judge Mary Devins, at Ballina District Court this week.

As part of the fund-raising efforts for the Ballina Arts Centre Redevelopment campaign, there will be a Meet the Author Brunch in the Downhill Hotel, tomorrow (Saturday) at 12 noon.

Fianna Fáil TD for Mayo Deputy Dara Calleary has paid tribute to former Ballina Town Council member Sean McLoughlin who passed away at the weekend after a short illness. He was predeceased by his wife Mary.

Garda Robert McCallion, a 29-year-old native of Swinford who lost his battle for life at Beaumont Hospital Dublin on Tuesday, has been described as a “hero”.

The elected members of Mayo County Council from Ballina approved the raising of a loan of €12.9 million for the provision of a 66-unit housing development in St Patrick’s Estate in Ballina by Clúid Housing Association. Senior executive officer Paul Benson outlined to the members the reason for the raising of this loan. He told the members that the council would raise the loan and hand the money over to Clúid for the scheme, but the council would be reimbursed fully by central government the amount of the loan and any charges that were applied on it. He also informed the members that the tendering process was well under way for the project and that he was still confident that work would be under way on the scheme before the summer.