The Mayor of Castlebar, Cllr Ger Deere, has called on local authorities to set example by cleaning up properties under their ownership, including former official buildings no longer in use.
The Fine Gael councillor, who is also chairman of the Castlebar Tidy Towns committee, raised the matter following a motion at a recent Castlebar Town Council meeting which highlighted the case of a local authority house that has been left derelict. Unfortunately, the house in question has become an eyesore in the locality and requires urgent attention.
“While the issue of local authority housing was a topic of discussion at our recent meeting of Castlebar Town Council, one other difficulty relates to official buildings used in the past,” Cllr Deere said. “The Old Library at Mountain View in Castlebar is a prime example where maintenance works are required. This is a public building under the control of Mayo County Council which has been left unattended for too long with no obvious maintenance carried out for years. These buildings are having a negative impact on the town in respect of tourism and on our results in the Tidy Towns Competition. Local authorities are supposed to implement orders on the public to clean up their act in respect of their properties and yet they have buildings under their remit in such unsightly conditions. I think it is highly ironic that this situation has been allowed to develop; and while funding issues may limit the works that may be carried out, it should not mean that the issue is completely ignored.”
