Search Results for 'Cllr Murray'

Mayo needs to wake up to the reality that the controversial method of extracting natural gas from rock — known as fracking — could soon become a major issue in the county.

Mayo needs to wake up to the reality that the controversial method of extracting natural gas from rock — known as fracking — could soon become a major issue in the county.

A proposal to have all 400kv power lines undergrounded included in the new Mayo County Council development plan fell at a vote (12-10, with nine councillors absent for the vote ) at this week’s special meeting of the council to approve the new county development plan.

There were clear dividing lines drawn in the Mayo County Council on Monday afternoon when a controversial draft policy on ‘Community Benefit Contributions for Certain Major Developments’ was passed, by a vote of 26-6. Excepting Fine Gael where all councillors support the motion, the two other political parties in the council split on the vote, with Sinn Féin’s Rose Conway-Walsh, Fianna Fáil trio of Al McDonnell, Blackie Gavin, and Damien Ryan, and Independent councillors Michael Kilcoyne, Richard Finn, and Michael Holmes all voting for it. Voting against the motion were Fianna Fáil’s Margaret Adams, Jimmy Maloney, and Annie May Reape alongside Sinn Féin’s Gerry Murray and independents Gerry Ginty and Seamus Weir. Cllr Frank Durcan was absent from the meeting. Both Cllr Murray and Cllr Weir led the charge against the proposals at the meeting and both councillors ended up in heated side-debates with other councillors while the topic was being discussed.

Sinn Féin county councillor Gerry Murray has expressed concern about the future of Mayo County Council’s local area office in Swinford following proposals by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael that would see the Swinford Office losing a large chunk of it’s hinterland to either Castlebar or Claremorris. Cllr Murray said the proposals made to the local boundary commission by both parties seriously compromise and undermine the future of local government in Swinford and may ultimately lead to the closure of the local area office.

Up to 50 homes in Kiltimagh are facing the threat of the power being cut off to their estate’s pumping station at the end of this month, which could pose a potential public health issue it has emerged this week.

Sinn Féin councillor Gerry Murray this week called for the Garda traffic corps to be disbanded, asking that ordinary members of the Gardaí deal with traffic duties so that more gardaí could be deployed in the towns around the county. Cllr Murray told the July meeting of Mayo County Council: “The ordinary Gardaí in the county are trained to carry out all the functions of the traffic corps and they can carry out these duties as part of their ordinary work. If this happened it would free up members who are solely on traffic duty to come back into the community and give extra bodies to police in the locality around the county”.

The ongoing row between Fine Gael and the other elected members of Mayo County Council in relation to the filling of vacancies on Mayo VEC may finally be coming to a conclusion. The issue raised its head once again at the April meeting of the local authority on Monday, when Sinn Féin councillor Gerry Murray said he had “no option but to withdraw from the meeting” after he was not allowed to read the text of the legislation in relation to the appointment of people to the VEC following the resignation of a member.

The Mayo branch of Sinn Féin held a protest at the intervention of the IMF and EU into Ireland’s finances on Tuesday evening. The sparsely attended protest, held in Market Square, Castlebar, was addressed by both Mayo county councillor Gerry Murray and Castlebar town councillor Therese Ruane.

The Catholic Church has given prime development land to Mayo County Council for the development of a town park in Charlestown in exchange for funding for the construction of a car park at the back of the church.