The elected members and officials from the Castlebar Municipal District have appealed to members of the public who are using Lough Lannagh to get some exercise, to not park their cars at the new cemetery in the town.
Access to the car park at Lough Lannagh was blocked off last week by the council after a request from Gardai, to help curb people congregating at the local amenity.
However, since the closure of the car park, people have started to park in the car park for the new cemetery on the Newport Road in the town, which also offers an access point to Lough Lannagh, in order to carry out their exercise routine.
The issue was raised at the January meeting of Castlebar Municipal District, which was held virtually, with all the councillors and officials logging in remotely to the meeting.
Cathaoirleach of the District, Cllr Blackie Gavin, said he knew of one elderly lady whose car got stuck on the green area in the cemetery while she was visiting a loved one's grave, as it was the only place left to park because of the amount of cars that were there - and her car had to be pulled out.
Cllr Michael Kilcoyne said that something had to be done about it because it was affecting people who were burying and visiting their loved ones in the graveyard and they weren't able to get into the car park because of the volume of cars.
Fine Gael councillor Donna Sheridan said that similar scenes were being seen near Raheens Wood, where the council also closed the car park on the advice of Gardai - and people were now parking up along the roadside to access the woods walk there and causing a serious issue.
Senior Engineer for Mayo County Council, Anne Sweeney, said that the council would be erecting signage in the new cemetery car park to appeal to and remind people that the car park is for the graveyard and to ask the public to respect that. She also told the meeting the council was asked by Gardai to close the car parks to discourage people from travelling from outside their 5km zone to use the amenities and also, people had been congregating and chatting in the car parks.
