A county councillor in south Mayo has called on the court service to visit the Ballinrobe court house and point out the reasons why the court sittings have been ‘temporarily’ moved to Castlebar.
Today (Friday ) sees the first sitting of Ballinrobe District Court in Castlebar and Cllr Patsy O’Brien has written to the court service asking them to meet with representatives of the Ballinrobe Community Development Association, local councillors, and Oireachtas members to explain their recent decision.
Cllr O’Brien has pointed out that the downstairs of the courthouse building is currently unoccupied and could be refurbished to be used as a courthouse. This, he said, would address issues of accessibility.
The Fine Gael representative told the Mayo Advertiser that during this economic downturn multi-faceted facilities such as that which was opened in Belmullet last year and which is being proposed for Claremorris are not financially viable, but the refurbishment of existing buildings such as the Ballinrobe courthouse could answer health and safety queries that may exist.
The decision to move the Ballinrobe court sittings to Castlebar was taken suddenly last week.
