Merits of developing Castlebar historic trail outlined

Fri, Jul 15, 2011

Castlebar’s built heritage has been neglected and a significant amount of work needs to be carried out to buildings on some of the town’s streets, according to Mayo County Council’s Heritage Officer Ms Deirdre Cunningham.

‘Polluter pays principle is not sustainable’ - Hynes

Fri, Jul 15, 2011

Mayo county manager Peter Hynes told the July meeting of the council this week that the polluter pays principle is not sustainable at the current time. Mr Hynes was responding to a question from Sinn Féin councillor Rose Conway Walsh about the possibility of any major project coming on stream in Mayo, such as the Belmullet sewerage scheme, with the expected reduction in the councils capital budget next year, and the polluter pays principle contribution the council would have to make.

Mayo County Council gives Davis presidential approval

Fri, Jul 15, 2011

The members of Mayo County Council this week gave their backing to Kiltimagh native Mary Davis to put her name forward on the ballot paper for the upcoming presidential election. She was proposed by Cllr Richard Finn and seconded by Cllr Frank Durcan in the chamber.

Funding welcomed for sustainable travel in Ballina

Fri, Jul 15, 2011

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has welcomed funding from the Department of Tourism, Transport and Sport under the Jobs Initiative and Sustainable Travel Projects. A total of €97,150 will be allocated for the provision of 20km of cycle lanes along arterial routes serving the Ballina area. The funding allocation also includes for the provision of signage and information on these cycle lanes. This funding is part of the recent Jobs Initiative to provide for greater use of sustainable transport as well as creating employment.

Minister Ring confirms conference boost for Mayo

Fri, Jul 15, 2011

Minister of State for Transport and Tourism and Mayo TD Michael Ring has revealed a significant boost for Mayo with three conferences being held in the county this autumn.

Western Rail Corridor completion essential- O’Brien dismisses greenway claim

Fri, Jul 15, 2011

Fine Gael Cllr Patsy O’Brien this week has dismissed claims that rather than opening up the Claremorris to Colloney section of the Western Rail Corridor it should be opened as a greenway walk and cycle route.

Little progress on recouping €9m owed to council by Government

Fri, Jul 15, 2011

The Mayo County Council is currently owed a large amount of money by central government that still has not been paid, it emerged this week. Fianna Fáil councillor Michael McNamara raised the issue this week, while head of finance for the council, Mr Peter Duggan, was giving his quarterly break down of the council’s finances. Cllr McNamara asked: “It was said that €9 million is owed to the council by the Government, has there been much progress made on recouping that.” Duggan told the meeting: “There has been very little movement with the Department, but discussions are ongoing between both sides.”

Ballinrobe GAA Club to tackle novel truck-pull challenge in bid to elect Mayor

Fri, Jul 15, 2011

Will they, or won’t they – that’s the big question around Ballinrobe as the local GAA Club members have set themselves an enormous physical challenge.

Murray calls for traffic corps to be disbanded

Fri, Jul 15, 2011

Sinn Féin councillor Gerry Murray this week called for the Garda traffic corps to be disbanded, asking that ordinary members of the Gardaí deal with traffic duties so that more gardaí could be deployed in the towns around the county. Cllr Murray told the July meeting of Mayo County Council: “The ordinary Gardaí in the county are trained to carry out all the functions of the traffic corps and they can carry out these duties as part of their ordinary work. If this happened it would free up members who are solely on traffic duty to come back into the community and give extra bodies to police in the locality around the county”.

Cribben takes the chair in Claremorris

Fri, Jul 15, 2011

Fine Gael Cllr John Cribben took over the chairmanship of the Claremorris Electoral Area Committee this week for the upcoming year. The Ballyhaunis councillor took over from Cllr Patsy O’Brien who said while he enjoyed chairing the meetings he was looking forward to getting back to just being a councillor at the meetings and not having to be as restrained as he was in the chair when addressing issues.