Search Results for 'Cllr Jarlath Munnelly'

The chairperson of the Roads and Transportation Strategic Policy Committee of Mayo County Council this week reported to the committee there had been no major progress following a meeting between the delegation and the NRA recently.

The issue of the upgrading of the N26 is to be kept to the forefront of the local issues according to the members of the Ballina Electoral Area committee this week.

There was unanimous support for the retention of Mayo VEC as a standalone organisation rather than it being merged with Sligo, as was proposed by the Government earlier this year, at the monthly meeting of Mayo County Council this week.

The members of the Ballina Electoral Area this week paid tribute to their former Mayo County Council colleague Michelle Mulherin on her election to the 31st Dáil. Dep Mulherin was first elected to represent the people of the Ballina area in the county council in 2004, before successfully retaining her seat in 2009.

The bombshell that Mayo VEC is to be amalgamated with Sligo VEC as part of a radical plan agreed by the Cabinet this week to cut the number of VECs in the country by half down from 33 to 16, has left the education sector in Mayo reeling this week.

The controversial N59 project which includes a bypass of Crossmolina looks like it will remain in limbo for some time to come. At the February meeting of the Ballina Electoral Area, the elected members agreed a route for the N59 from Ballina to Crossmolina and further on to the west of the county. However the route was not approved when it came to a full meeting of Mayo County Council, following a large volume of opposition from people in Crossmolina because it would bypass the town. By not approving the proposed route at the full council meeting, the members have sterilised the land around original five proposed routes which were put before the members. However even if they do this, it will still leave the project and the lands effected by this in limbo.

A request for information on Mayo VEC expenses by Castlebar Town Council has upset committee members.

“All lands will be frozen until a route is chosen and accepted by the council,” was the stark reality that senior engineer for Mayo County Council, Noel Burke, told members of the Ballina Electoral Area this week. The members of the committee had been debating the issue of the new Crossmolina bypass which has caused plenty of debate in the area over the past number of months. When the route chosen by the council executive for the proposed new bypass was rejected by the council, all potential routes and lands around them were frozen for development.

A number of Ballina based councillors expressed their anger that the stalled N26 project has been left in limbo. Fine Gael councillor Seamus Weir told a meeting of the Ballina Electoral Area committee of his frustration at the silence on the issue since it was refused planning permission by An Bord Pleanála. He asked the council executive if there was an update on the project. “We had a meeting two months ago and we spoke at length about it,” he said. “I have heard nothing since about it, we adopted this plan in 2002 and since then we have had landowners having their lands frozen and now they still don’t know what is going to happen. It’s just not fair on them. Is this project dead in the water or what? The reality of this is that we do need this road, the people need the road. I’d favour downgrading the road from a dual carriageway if it made it easier for it to go ahead.”

Fine Gael councillor Noreen Heston has resigned from Mayo VEC in order to focus on her work with local residents in the town. In her resignation letter she stressed that she wanted to concentrate on “my core responsibilities as a member of Castlebar Town Council and, especially, my work with residents’ associations”.