Sinn Fein councillor Rose Conway-Walsh this week voted against the adoption of a part eight report on a development of three dwellings for older people and a commercial unit at Church Road, Belmullet, at the Belmullet Electoral Area Committee meeting. Cllr Conway-Walsh gave her reasons for not supporting the item saying: “I can’t support this. I think that Church Road is congested enough already. It has seen the landscape change dramatically over the past number of years. This is not in the interests of best planning.”
Cllr Conway-Walsh’s feelings were not supported by her four other elected colleagues, with Cllr Gerry Coyle saying: “I met with some of the objectors to this project and I listened to them. I have no objections to it myself and will support it. There are always reservations from people about any project, that’s the way it is.” Cllr Michael Holmes and Cllr Mícheál McNamara had both abstained from making a decision on the project at the previous meeting. But both councillors gave the project their support at this week’s meeting saying they had received representations from the St Vincent de Paul Society which is looking to become the tenant of the commercial section of the development. The councillors said they had not received any representations from the members of the public who had made submissions objecting to the proposed development.
The item will now go to the full meeting of Mayo County Council in October, where Cllr Conway-Walsh said she would speak out against the development. She also said during the meeting she supported the work that SVdP had done and continued to do with the disadvantaged in Mayo and that her objections were nothing to do with them, but that she felt the area was already over developed.
