Search Results for 'Cllr Mark Winters'

There was full throated praise for all those involved in getting the new Garda monitored CCTV system in Ballina finally up and running at the May meeting of the local authority this week. At Tuesday night’s meeting Sgt Mandy Gaynor gave the elected members a full presentation on the system that currently has 18 linked up monitored cameras throughout the town, with four more to come on stream shortly and the possibility to add more later.

The elected members of Ballina Town Council agreed to hear from a delegation from the Jobs for Ballina Committee at their next monthly meeting, following the unavailability of anyone from the committee to attend the March meeting of the council.

The elected members of Ballina Town Council on Wednesday night gave their permission for the council to dispose of 2.35 acres of land at Pearse Street/Humbert Street to Tesco for €3.43 million. The lands are located in the area where the existing Tesco store is located in the centre of the town, and it is planned that Tesco demolish the existing store and develop a whole new large store at this location. The total investment that Tesco will make in this project is estimated to be around €21 million. When completed the new store is expected to employ between 160 and 170 people, up from the 68 currently employed in the existing store. Some 300 car parking spaces both over and underground are also to be created as part of this development which will see an extra 180 to 190 car parking spaces being brought into the town centre of Ballina.

The members of Ballina Town Council this week decided that there would be no foreign trip this year for the Méara for St Patrick’s Day. The council members were considering an invitation from the twinned town of Scranton, Pennsylvania, to attend the St Patrick’s Day parade on March 11. The councillors also were considering an invitation from the Athis Mons in France.

The members of Ballina Town Council adjourned their monthly meeting this week until next Wednesday as a mark of respect to former councillor Jimmy Sheridan who passed away recently.

The Ballina Town Council agreed to give Ballina Chamber €20,000 for the promotion of the town at the monthly meeting of the council this week, but the decision did lead to some heated debate in the council chamber. Ballina Chamber had initially made the application a number of months ago, but the decision was held off after some of the members of the council expressed their concerns that they would not be included in the decision of where the money would be spent, and requested the chamber to report back to them as to what exactly the €20,000 would be spent on. Before the debate began, Mayor Mary Kelly told the meeting that she believed that Cllr Mark Winters should excuse himself from the chamber for the item because he is the secretary of the chamber, Cllr Winters objected to this telling the meeting that he was there as a councillor and that his position in the chamber was a voluntary one, and he was not getting paid for his work with the chamber. Town clerk Carmel Murphy agreed that Cllr Winter would not have a conflict of interest as he was a member of a voluntary organisation and not a paid staff member.

The new €1.65 million footbridge in Ballina which was officially opened last October has finally been given a name. Ballina Town Council adopted The Salmon Weir bridge as the name for the bridge by a vote of five to two, which was against the will of the majority of the people who made submissions on the naming. Cllr Michelle Mulherin along with her party colleague Cllr Mark Winters to name the bridge after Mary Robinson, with Fianna Fáil councillors Willie Nolan and Frances McAndrew, and Independent councillors Mary Kelly, Peter Clarke, and Gerry Ginty voting against it. Both Cllr Johnny O’Malley and Cllr Barry McLoughlin were not present at the vote as they had to leave the meeting early to be part of a guard of honour for the late John Forde, whose funeral was taking place that evening.

A request by Ballina Chamber of Commerce for €20,000 worth of funding for a number of promotional projects for the town, from Ballina Town Council’s budget of €40,000 for tourism promotion, angered Ballina Méara, Cllr Mary Kelly this week. Town clerk Carmel Murphy outlined a request from the Chamber to the members of the town council for a number of projects the Chamber were looking to promote in the town over the coming year. The projects included the launch of the redeveloped Pearse Street, the promotion of the Jackie Clarke Library, the All-Ireland pipe band competition, a monthly e-zine with news and events from the town, and the continued promotion of Ballina as the salmon capital of Ireland.