The fall out from the abolition of town councils and the establishment of municipal districts raised its head again this week when an urban versus rural row broke out at the West Mayo Municipal District February meeting which was held in Keel in Achill on Monday afternoon.
The Cathaoirleach of the Municipal District, Westport based independent Cllr Christy Hyland, raised the issue of the deterioration of footpaths in Westport town and the lack of funding to fix them. Cllr Hyland said that the funding was taken from the towns and even with it being put into a pot with other funding for new municipal districts it was only "loose change".
His comments angered a number of the more rural based councillors, with Achill based Fianna Fáil Cllr Paul McNamara pointing out: “The people of Achill and Blacksod are entitled to the pot as anyone else, business people in those areas pay rates and everything else. Westport got €740,000 for the Westport Leisure Centre and how much money did I get for Achill? I couldn't get money to put up Christmas lights. Don’t say we are taking money.” He added that the comment of loose change was "bad form" from Cllr Hyland.
His fellow rural based councillor Independent Cllr Michael Holmes, who is based in the Mulranny area, said: "People in Belderrig and Leenane are as important as people in Westport", and Fine Gael's Erris based Cllr Gerry Coyle asking how the footpaths got so bad in the two years since the abolition of the town council.
Fine Gael Westport based Cllr Tereasa McGuire said that Cllr Hyland was falling into a trap of creating an urban and rural divide in the district, saying that the town councils were gone and it's time to move on and that there should be a unity of purpose from all those elected to the district. Cllr Hyland finished by saying that the abolition of the town council was detrimental to Westport and called the decision a "con job".
