Search Results for 'Barry McLoughlin'

The elected members of Ballina Town Council were mired in disagreement of the second phase of the traffic management plan in the town at the April meeting of the town council this week.

Fresh from celebrating the election of Michelle Mulherin to the Dáil the members of the Ballina district of the Fine Gael party will have to get voting again very soon. Because of her election, the party now has vacancies to fill on both Mayo County Council and Ballina Town Council. Ordinarily a vacant seat is filled by co-opting a Fine Gael candidate who missed out on getting elected to the county council last time. However the Fine Gael vote managment in the 2009 local elections was so good that all their candidates in the Ballina electoral area were elected to the county council.

The members of Ballina Town Council this week decided that there would be no foreign trip this year for the Méara for St Patrick’s Day. The council members were considering an invitation from the twinned town of Scranton, Pennsylvania, to attend the St Patrick’s Day parade on March 11. The councillors also were considering an invitation from the Athis Mons in France.

A new storm water attenuation tank at Bachelor’s Walk in Ballina was given the go ahead by the elected members this week at the monthly meeting of Ballina Town Council. The new tank was proposed by Fianna Fáil councillor Johnny O’Malley and seconded by Fine Gael councillor Barry McLoughlin following a debate on the potential hazards of effluent getting into the Moy.

The members of Ballina Town Council agreed a date for what promises to be a very difficult budget for the local authority for next year this week.

The Ballina Town Council is to rename Pearse Street in the town to iStreet for a day as part of the town’s effort to win €50,000 worth of advertising in a competition a radio station is running. Fine Gael Councillor Mark Winters proposed the idea at the meeting of the town council on Wednesday night as the elected members discussed the renovations of the street which will be completed early next month. Cllr Winters told the meeting that “ iRadio are running a competition where they are giving away €50,000 worth of advertising for a town, where the best dressed shop with an iRadio theme would win €10,000 for themselves and another €40,000 for the promotion of the town. Winning a prize like this would be a huge boost for the town in promoting itself and the station is aimed at the 16 to 35-year-old market who are the big consumers of goods and services, and this kind of advertising could only be a boost to the town.” His proposal was seconded by Cllr Barry McLoughlin.

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.

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.

Castlebar Celtic 0

The issue of late night opening of takeaways in Ballina was raised at the Ballina joint policing committee this week. The JPC resolved to write to all the businesses in the town to see if an earlier common closure time could be agreed on. The issue was raised by Fine Gael councillor Barry McLoughlin. He told the meeting that there was one rule for one and one for another, as most takeaways had trading curfews included in their planning permission.