Search Results for 'Richard Finn'

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.

Nominations for the Local Elections on May 23 closed on Saturday.

Altogether 12 candidates will contest the Claremorris electoral area on May 23, including seven outgoing councillors, with seven seats to fill.

The proposed biopark development in Claremorris received a major boost this week when Mayo County Council voted 22-3 to rezone the 20-acre site at Kilbeg, Claremorris, to ‘opportunity’ status as part of the new county development plan.

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.

Controversy looks set to erupt again in Claremorris over plans to develop a combined heat and power (CHP) plant and biomedical facility - called a biopark - on the outskirts of the town.

A Claremorris councillor has called on Mayo County Council to enter into “immediate negotiations” with Iarnrod Eireann to have a dangerous level crossing on the Claremorris/Kiltimagh Road widened and upgraded.

The news that Mayo County Council has the process started for the takeover of 43 estates and roads in the Claremorris electoral area was described as a “major step forward” by one councillor at the November meeting of the Claremorris Electoral Area.

There was disagreement over the future of part of the proposed Western Rail Corridor this week, when it was proposed that part of the track the old line follows be used for a greenway project in east Mayo. Cllr Joe Mellett raised the issue at Monday’s special county development plan meeting, where he suggested that a walking and cycling track be developed alongside the track at the planned rail corridor.