Search Results for 'Cllr Weir'

There's a new top man in local politics in Ballina. 

Independent Ballina Municipal District Mayo county councillor Seamus Weir this week hit out at proposals to only underground 8km of the controversial project. Cllr Weir said this week: “I oppose Eirgrid’s third option to reduce the voltage on the proposed 400kv transmission line from 400kv to 210kv and suggesting under-grounding the line to a distances of 30 kilometres from Magownagh to Flagfort. I am told it will only be underground for 8km at Flagfort substation.”

Independent councillor Seamus Weir, who has been a leading adversary of the proposed GridWest project, brought forward a motion to the October meeting of Mayo County Council calling for the council to rescind its Wind Energy Strategy Plan and to review its Renewable Energy Strategy.

The stand off over the Grid West project looks set to intensify with members of the Moy Valley Protection Group now vowing they will fight it all the way, regardless of whether or not the proposed high capacity power lines are sunk underground.

He may have parted ways with his party but former Fine Gael representative turned Independent Seamus Weir is far from out in the cold.

A number of the Independent candidates running in the upcoming Local Elections believe voters are disillusioned with what the traditional parties are offering and a swing towards the non-party aligned is on the cards.

A proposal to have all 400kv power lines undergrounded included in the new Mayo County Council development plan fell at a vote (12-10, with nine councillors absent for the vote ) at this week’s special meeting of the council to approve the new county development plan.

There were clear dividing lines drawn in the Mayo County Council on Monday afternoon when a controversial draft policy on ‘Community Benefit Contributions for Certain Major Developments’ was passed, by a vote of 26-6. Excepting Fine Gael where all councillors support the motion, the two other political parties in the council split on the vote, with Sinn Féin’s Rose Conway-Walsh, Fianna Fáil trio of Al McDonnell, Blackie Gavin, and Damien Ryan, and Independent councillors Michael Kilcoyne, Richard Finn, and Michael Holmes all voting for it. Voting against the motion were Fianna Fáil’s Margaret Adams, Jimmy Maloney, and Annie May Reape alongside Sinn Féin’s Gerry Murray and independents Gerry Ginty and Seamus Weir. Cllr Frank Durcan was absent from the meeting. Both Cllr Murray and Cllr Weir led the charge against the proposals at the meeting and both councillors ended up in heated side-debates with other councillors while the topic was being discussed.

“Are we robbing Peter to pay Paul?” asked Cllr Seamus Weir this week when the Ballina Electoral Area Committee was discussing the Local Improvement Scheme (LIS) part of the roadworks scheme for the area.