Castlebar Town Councillors criticised the revolving door of superintendents that have been stationed in the county town over the past number of years. Fianna Fáil Cllr Aidan Crowley informed the meeting that Supt Eugene Brennan ,who had been stationed in Castlebar for the past year and half, was transferred to Ardee, Co Louth on December 30 last.
All the councillors at the meeting spoke very highly of the work that Supt Brennan had done in Castlebar when he was based there. Cllr Noel Campbell in his last meeting as a member of the council proposed that the council write to the Garda Commissioner and the Department of Justice to request that the next Superintendent who is appointed to the town to be appointed for a lengthy period. He continued by saying, “It takes time for a superintendent to build up a relationship with the people and the town, and everyone was only getting used to Superintendent Brennan in the town when he was moved on. We are all very sorry to see him going, he was a very good communicator with everyone he met and he showed a special interest in all the local residents’ associations in the town.”
Cllr Crowley told the meeting, “We need stability in the town. I personally am very sorry to see him going from here. I worked very closely with him as part of my job and the way he dealt with youngsters who were before the courts was extraordinary, he would meet these people after the court and speak to them and have a quiet word with them which is something I’ve never seen before.” Cllr Crowley went on to say that it was time that we saw Superintendents who were appointed to the town not to be just here as a step on the promotion ladder.
Kilcoyne calls for appointment of full time litter warden
Independent town Councillor Michael Kilcoyne spoke out about the need for a full time litter warden in Castlebar. Cllr Kilcoyne told the monthly meeting of Castlebar Town Council that he believed that such an appointment would be self financing from fines collected due to the work of the litter warden. He stated, “Sometimes I feel that I’m talking to the wall when I speak about the problem of litter. The only way for people to stand up and take notice is to make sure that plenty of fines are issued to those who are breaking the law.” Cllr Kilcoyne’s proposal was widely welcomed by the other members of the council, however Fianna Fáil Cllr Aidan Crowley told the meeting, “I think we are ignoring the elephant in the room here. What we need is people to be more conscious of their own town, enforcement of this issue would not be such a big issue if people were more civic minded and did the decent thing.” While Cllr Kilcoyne’s idea received the support of the council, Castlebar Mayor Kevin Guthrie told the meeting that the reality of the issue is that the Government has an embargo on local authorities recruiting staff at the minute and there was little possibility of a new warden being appointed.
