Search Results for 'Cllr Weir'

An apology was issued to Mayo County Councillor Seamus Weir at this week’s Health Service Executive west forum meeting in Merlin Park.

The HSE West has overspent by €34.6 million in the first four months of the year and this debt could reach €100 million by December, a meeting of the HSE West Forum was warned this week.

Independent councillor Michael Kilcoyne put forward a motion at the monthly meeting of Mayo County Council calling on the authority not to issue full payment to contractors until they have paid all subcontractors. This is to be included as a clause on contracts issued to main contractors. The motion received huge support from Cllr Kilcoyne’s fellow councillors this week.

“I’ll leave no stone unturned, we want the N26,” Fine Gael councillor Eddie Staunton said this week. “It’s our turn now, you only have to look at the likes of the roads they have got in Cork and Kerry.”

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 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.”

Mayo County Council have announced details of rationalisation plans which aim to bring down the cost of operating their two landfill sites.

The Ballina electoral area committee stood firm on their stance in regard to a zoning issue in the town and environs development plan at their meeting this week. Stephen Dowds, a planning consultant for Mayo County Council, went through a number of submissions that the council had received on foot of the draft development plan that was published late last year. One submission and suggestion in the manager’s report sparked the ire of the councillors. Before the plan went out on public display the elected members of the council had decided to rezone a portion of land from agricultural to industrial commercial, at the request of a business owner who had a premises he wanted to extend. However the report put before them at this week’s meeting was calling on changing the lands back to agricultural.

A notice of motion by Michelle Mulherin calling on the Ballina electoral area committee to request the Minister for Environment and the Minister for Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs to obtain a derogation for Ballina and other towns in the BMW region from the EU in order for them to obtain structural funds under the Leader programme caused plenty of debate at the committee meeting this week. The motion was eventually passed when it was seconded by her Fine Gael party colleague Jarlath Munnelly.

Before Cllr Joe Mellett had even handed over the Cathaoirleach’s chain to incoming Cathaoirleach for the next 12 months, Cllr John Cribben, independent Castlebar based Cllr Frank Durcan fired his first warning shot across the bows of the new council. Cllr Durcan told the meeting, “In the interests of transparency and accountability, I would call that the salaries of the Cathaoirleach, the leas Cathaoirleach and all the committee chairpersons be given to the general public”. Cllr Durcan’s call was seconded by fellow independent Cllr Gerry Ginty from Ballina.