A local councillor in north Mayo is calling on the Minister for Local Government Eoghan Murphy to ensure a new fire station is in place in Crossmolina as soon as possible.
Fianna Fail councillor Michael Loftus proposed a motion to write to the Minister to expedite the delivery of the new build fire station for Crossmolina proposed by former minister Alan Kelly under the Fire Stations Capital Programme 2016-2020.
The Crossmolina based councillor said the money was promised in 2014 and there had been no sign of anything happening yet.
Speaking at this week’s meeting of the Ballina Municipal District, Cllr Loftus requested the support of his fellow representatives to write to the Minister.
Upon raising the motion Cllr Loftus said: “Crossmolina was put on this list at the time for a new fire station before 2020. In the subsequent years Crossmolina’s fire station personnel are working out of two Portacabins. At the moment two Portacabins as a fire station in Crossmolina is not good enough, to be working out of such an environment is not sufficient for any person. I am calling on ourselves in this chamber to write to the Minister looking for Crossmolina to be pushed forward.
“We have a site in Crossmolina, which is something that we usually have to look for. We have everything in place in Crossmolina.”
The north Mayo town is expected to see the development of a flood defence scheme along the River Deel towards the end of this year and into 2019, and Cllr Loftus says this makes the need for a new station all the more pressing; “2018/19 is going to be a big year in Crossmolina with the development of the flood defence scheme which has been proposed. We’re going to have a serious €10 million project with that development and there is going to be quite a lot of traffic and disturbance in the town and that will have a serious effect on the town. The fire station is something that we are going to look for and we are going to need, and unfortunately we are afraid there could be accidents and we need a proper fire service in place.”
All councillors in attendance at Wednesday’s meeting agreed to write to the Minister seeking to expedite the process.
