The Ballina and District Trades Council members this week expressed their concern about the decision of Ballina Town Council to refuse planning permission for a McDonald’s restaurant in the town. A statement issued by Matt Farrell from the group said: “On reviewing the reasons given for the refusal it would seem that the whole focus was on why this should not happen as opposed to what we could do to make this employment opportunity materialise.” The members went on to call on the town council to give serious consideration for the positive aspects of the proposed development, and that a positive image of town being open for business needed to be promoted, saying: “Over the last few years there has been much talk about various retailers trying to come to Ballina but these plans have seldom materialised. As a town we need to be careful of the perception [whether true or not] that Ballina is not open for additional business. We need to strive to be seen as a town that is willing to develop our existing business and welcoming new enterprise as opposed to the town that holds a quarter of all the unemployed of Mayo.”
Online group calling for overturn of decision
A Jobs for Ballina Facebook page has been set up where people have been calling for the council to retract its decision on the planning permission for McDonald’s. The Facebook page features posts such as “We will fight for McDonald’s all the way, and yes our fight is all about McDonald’s for now.” The organisers of the page also have a link to an online petition for people to sign which had, at the time of going to press, 315 signatures and they also said they had got 1,500 pen and paper signatures in the town over the past number of days, calling for the decision to be overturned.
Chamber supportive of McDonald’s opening
Ballina Chamber of Commerce members this week also said that they are supportive of McDonald’s opening in the town. Sandra Cribben, CEO of the Chamber, said: “Ballina Chamber is fully supportive of Mc Donald’s setting up in the town of Ballina, and would see this as a positive to have an international brand such as McDonald’s located in the town that is renowned world-wide as a family friendly business. Ballina Chamber is not involved in the planning process or in determining what businesses set up in the town, that is a function of the local authority engineers and officials; we do not get involved in the planning process unless it is an application of strategic infrastructure development, eg, the N26. Ballina Chamber did not object to the McDonald’s application or to any application for new businesses to set up in the town.” She also called on the chamber to enter into discussions with the town council on the project, saying: “We hope that McDonald’s planners will enter proper discussions with the local authority to come up with an application for a McDonald’s in Ballina that would tie in with the Town Development Plan and would lead to its development in the town, that would create much needed employment and would be another attraction to draw people into Ballina. Similar to that of the Tesco situation where the original application ran into difficulties at the show grounds site, and through negotiations an application is imminent for the redevelopment of its current store to an improved and modern store in the Market Square.”
