The members of Ballina Town Council will have an item on the July agenda of the local authority to discuss the reversal of the traffic management plan in the town. The issue arose after Cllr Johnny O’Malley questioned how much money had been spent on the implementation of the second phase of the traffic plan when the members were considering the financial update on the councils spending up to the end of March this year.
Town clerk Carmel Murphy told Cllr O’Malley that it would have been about €10,000. “We’ve spent €10,000 already and we’ll probably have to spend another €10,000 reversing it,” Cllr O’Malley told the meeting. “I’d like to see this matter discussed at the next meeting to see where we are.” Cllr Gerry Ginty seconded the proposal.
Independent councillor Mary Kelly expressed her displeasure with the way in which the reversal of the plan was announced. “I think that phase two should have been kept as was suggested previously to see how it went with the provision of a temporary link road to make the system whole,” she said. “There was a decision taken by the manager between the last meeting and this to reverse the plan without any discussion.”
Cllr Ginty said that he believed it was good plan in the first place and he thought the manager came under “external, unrelenting pressure before he finally gave in” to change the plan back to what was there before. He also told the meeting that previously the manager thought it was a good plan, as did the previous town engineer and the current town engineer.
In a statement released by Cllr Kelly she said: “My final comment is about lobbyist groups having private meetings with the manager. I have great difficulty with these meetings in that they are not minuted. Councillors are being left out of the loop, the outcomes and discussions that take place at such meetings should be presented to councillors at the next meeting. Instead there are deals made and commitments given behind closed doors.”
There was support from a number of councillors for the reversal of the current system with Cllr Willie Nolan, Cllr Peter Clarke and Méara Cllr Francis McAndrew all backing the decision to revert the traffic plan to the old system.
