The elected members of Ballina Town Council narrowly passed a revised supplementary development contribution scheme at their monthly meeting. The revised plan which saw the cost of the contribution cut from €4,500 per residential unit to €3,500 was passed by a vote of five to four in the chamber after a lengthy debate. The proposal to put the item through but with a reduced charge was made by Fianna Fáil councillor Padraig Moore, which was a counter motion to Independent councillor Mary Kelly’s proposal to shelve the item for 12 months and bring it back to the council then.
The vote saw party lines split among the Fine Gael party with Cllr Mark Winters voting alongside Sinn Féin councillor Peter Clarke, Independent councillor Mary Kelly, and former PD general election candidate Cllr Tommy Cooke against the proposal, with Mayor Michelle Mulherin voting with Fianna Fáil members Cllr Willie Nolan, Cllr Francis McAndrew, Cllr Johnny O’Malley, and Cllr Moore.
The new scheme will see all new housing units charged an extra €3,500 to be connected to the water and sewerage scheme in the town, with commercial developments charged a proportional price depending on the size and use of the development. The scheme is designed to fullfil the council’s obligation in relation to the polluter pays principle on new capital developments and have a revenue stream in place for the town council when it needs loans to finance its portion of capital projects.
Cllr Winters told the meeting that when this item first came on the agenda last year he had hoped it would have been voted down, “but it was put out to public consultation and judging by the number of submissions sent in by members of the public there is ill feeling against this idea in the community.” He went on to say “If adopted it is unworkable burden on developers and buyers alike and we will see less development in the town because of it. I defy anyone to vote for this, we have no choice but to reject it.”
Cllr Mary Kelly told the meeting: “This is not going to benefit anyone, it’s a levy that is ultimately going to be passed on to the purchaser.”
Cllr Johnny O’Malley told the meeting that his worry was that the county council (which is the provider of the services to the town council ) would have to get money one way or another. “If we reject this will it fall back on the rate payers and the water charges in the town to make up the shortfall.”
Town manager Paddy Mahon warned the members that capital projects that are pencilled in could grind to a halt unless the levy was passed. “The income for projects usually comes from water charges and development levies, but as you have seen the development levies have fallen to a trickle lately. There is a need to upgrade the drinking water system in the town, but without some kind of income stream projects like this might not go ahead if we can’t meet our contribution to the scheme.” Cllr Cooke told the meeting: “I think this proposal in the current climate is benign, if people aren’t going to start developments at the minute then there is no point adding on an extra few thousand that will but them off even more, Cllr Kelly’s proposal to shelve this for a time period is a good one.”
After speaking on the unfairness of the polluter pays principle and this new levy, Mayor Michelle Mulherin told the meeting: “Unfortunately I’ll be supporting the motion because I think we have no choice. It is the only option we have, we have to collect the money in some shape or form and that’s the reality.” This drew an exasperated response from Cllr Kelly who asked her: “Did I hear you correctly saying you are going to support this motion after outlining the reasons not to for five minutes?” To which Cllr Mulherin responded, “I am”.
Cllr Willie Nolan told the meeting that he was afraid that Ballina would be left behind if they did not pass this levy, and projects would be shelved because of lack of income. “I think this is way too serious an issue and we should leave party politics out of it. My concern is that Ballina will be left behind in the case of infrastructural projects.”
