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The Ballina Town Council agreed to give Ballina Chamber €20,000 for the promotion of the town at the monthly meeting of the council this week, but the decision did lead to some heated debate in the council chamber. Ballina Chamber had initially made the application a number of months ago, but the decision was held off after some of the members of the council expressed their concerns that they would not be included in the decision of where the money would be spent, and requested the chamber to report back to them as to what exactly the €20,000 would be spent on. Before the debate began, Mayor Mary Kelly told the meeting that she believed that Cllr Mark Winters should excuse himself from the chamber for the item because he is the secretary of the chamber, Cllr Winters objected to this telling the meeting that he was there as a councillor and that his position in the chamber was a voluntary one, and he was not getting paid for his work with the chamber. Town clerk Carmel Murphy agreed that Cllr Winter would not have a conflict of interest as he was a member of a voluntary organisation and not a paid staff member.

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Council members divided into two opposing camps this week over a suggestion by mayor Mark Cooney that Athlone Castle be reopened to the public until redevelopment works commence.

Castlebar Town Council paid tribute to four pillars of the community who passed away over the last week. The members agreed to finish their meeting early as a mark of respect to the late Anthony McHugh, Mick Ruane, Donnie Murphy, and Maureen Heverin.

The new €1.65 million footbridge in Ballina which was officially opened last October has finally been given a name. Ballina Town Council adopted The Salmon Weir bridge as the name for the bridge by a vote of five to two, which was against the will of the majority of the people who made submissions on the naming. Cllr Michelle Mulherin along with her party colleague Cllr Mark Winters to name the bridge after Mary Robinson, with Fianna Fáil councillors Willie Nolan and Frances McAndrew, and Independent councillors Mary Kelly, Peter Clarke, and Gerry Ginty voting against it. Both Cllr Johnny O’Malley and Cllr Barry McLoughlin were not present at the vote as they had to leave the meeting early to be part of a guard of honour for the late John Forde, whose funeral was taking place that evening.

Minster to be contacted over special needs cuts

Ballina Town Council stayed within the expected budgetary spending in the first two months of the year the elected members were told this week. At the local authority’s annual budget meeting the members had requested to be updated on a quarterly basis of the income and outgoing of the council. Town clerk Carmel Murphy gave the members their first update this week. Ms Murphy told the members that up to the end of February this year the council had spent €660,129 which equates to 10.31 per cent of the total budget for the year. She went on to tell the members that the total income for the council for the first two months of the year was €715,587 or 11.17 per cent of the budgeted income for the year. Both income and expenditure were in line with what was planned for in the budget. However she warned the members that managing the finances of the council will require constant vigilance and the realisation of the council’s income will be critical in the coming months to ensure the council stays in budget.

“A waste of tax payers’ money” is how Independent councillor Sheila Buckley Byrne deemed the proposed €260,000 regeneration plan for Willow Park and Meadowbrook.

The elected members of Ballina Town Council once again called for a public toilet to be put into the town. Following a request from the members at a previous meeting, town clerk Carmel Murphy had researched the cost of providing such a convenience and had contacted a number of other towns of the same size as Ballina to see what they had done. She told the meeting that of 11 towns she contacted, four had no toilet and some of the other seven had discontinued their use because they were very expensive.

Mayor of Castlebar Town Council Michael Kilcoyne laid down a challenge to Fine Gael Leader Enda Kenny to introduce a private member’s bill to enact legislation to regulate head shops in the country. Mayor Kilcoyne led a protest organised by town councillors in Castlebar which protested outside the two head shops in the town last Wednesday. When it was put to him that the protest was outside two premises which were acting inside the law as it stands he said: “I accept they are not breaking any law and we need to highlight the lack of any regulation. We have two government TDs in this constituency and we also have the leader of the opposition who can put down a private member’s bill to force a vote in the Dáil.”