COMHAIRLE BHAILE BÉAL ATHA NA SLUAIGH
BALLINASLOE TOWN COUNCIL

Minutes of Monthly Meeting held on Tuesday, 8th May, 2007,
in the Civic Offices, Ballinasloe, at 7.00 p.m.

In attendance (Members):
Cllr. Lucy Lloyd-Keighery, Mayor.
Cllr. Mike Kelly.
Cllr. Hugh Dolan.
Cllr. Johnny Walsh.
Cllr. Sean Tully.
Cllr. John Molloy.
Cllr. Pat O’Sullivan.

In Attendance (Officials):
Mr. Kevin Kelly, Director of Services.
Mr. Alan Farrell, Acting Town Clerk
Mr. Uinsinn Finn, Senior Executive Engineer
Mrs. Mary Carty, Assistant Staff Officer

Apologies:
Cllr. Carmel Grealy.
Cllr. Jason Devlin.

1. MINUTES – MONTHLY MEETING HELD ON THE 10TH APRIL, 2007, IN THE CIVIC OFFICES, BALLINASLOE, AT 7.00 P.M.

The minutes of the April Monthly Meeting held on the 10th April, 2007, which had been circulated, were adopted on the proposal of Cllr. S.Tully, seconded by Cllr. P. O’Sullivan.

Matters arising:-

Alzheimers Unit
Cllr. S. Tully informed the members that the Alzheimers Unit at St. Brigid’s Hospital closed last week. Mr. A. Farrell read a letter which he had received from the Health Service Executive regarding the Alzheimers Unit, and he agreed to circulate the letter to the members.

It was proposed by Cllr. S. Tully, seconded by Cllr. L. Lloyd Keighery and agreed that the closure of the Alzheimers Unit be put on the Agenda for the June meeting.

CCTV
Mr. A Farrell confirmed that the Council are seeking funding to cover the shortfall in the CCTV Scheme, and the RAPID Co-Ordinator is following this up.

October Fair.
Discussions took place in relation to the organisation of the October Fair 2007. The members requested that a meeting of the parties including the Fair and Festival Committee, the Show Society, the Chamber of Commerce, the Gardai Siochana, and the nine elected members of the council as well as Council officials be arranged for Tuesday 15th May, 2007, at 6.00 p.m and that the meeting would be a prelude to the meetings of the Fair and Festival Co-ordinating Committee. It was expected that once the co-ordinator was appointed that the co-ordinating committee would follow on from the works undertaken by the Town Council.

2. DATE FOR ANNUAL MEETING OF BALLINASLOE TOWN COUNCIL.

The members agreed to hold the Annual General Meeting of the Council on Tuesday, 12th June, 2007, at 7.00 p.m., to be followed by the Monthly Meeting at 7.15 p.m. It was also, agreed that the July Council meeting will be held on Tuesday 3rd July, 2007.

3. CASUAL TRADING BYE-LAWS.

Mr. Alan Farrell gave an overview of the report regarding Casual Trading which had been circulated to members. He stated that the report arose from the Notice of Motion “That this Council reviews the current Market Square By-Laws, in order to permit a Farmers Market to trade on a Friday”. He outlined the legislative background to the Casual Trading Bye-Laws and some of the issues for consideration if the members wished to revise the current bye-laws.

It was agreed that the Casual Trading Committee of the Council would meet to discuss the issues and prepare a report for the September or October meeting of the Council. It was also agreed that Cllr.Kelly would attend the sub-committee meeting.

4.MANAGERS BUSINESS.

Mr. Kelly informed the members that the statutory review of Ballinasloe Town Development Plan would commence shortly. He said that there are a number of issues to be considered during this review including the impact of the floodplains on development in the town, retail development, development densities, the management of development on the approach roads, the provision of recreation and amenity infrastructure, the provision of roads infrastructure in the town, the impact of new N6, employment issues, parking, townscape, land use zoning and de-zoning.

Mr. Kelly said that submissions would be invited from the public and that an issues paper would be prepared. He said that he wished to put members on notice that this is about to take place and he invited members so to make submission to him about any issues in relation to the review of the development plan.

Mr. U. Finn gave details to the meeting of planned works that are expected to be carried out over the next month. These included completion of Footpaths on Jubilee St., start work on footpaths in St Josephs Park including footpath link to Garbally Drive, start work on the implementation of five pedestrian crossings on the N6, road markings and traffic calming at Garbally Drive, general housing maintenance and general maintenance of parks and open spaces.

5. MAYOR’S BUSINESS

The mayor, Cllr. Lucy Lloyd Keighery asked that the Council investigate the possibility of providing a tennis court at the rear of the Leisure Centre. Mr. Kelly said that the council have a number of recreation and amenity projects on-going at the moment. He said that adequate funding has not yet been sourced for the projects already on hand and the Council would have to consider the monetary implications.

5. NOTICE OF MOTIONS – CLLR. P. O’SULLIVAN.

(i) “That this Council requests Galway County Council to provide a full time Planning Office in Ballinasloe and that this office have the relevant personnel appointed. This Office to act as a planning office for the Ballinasloe electoral area”.

The notice of motion was proposed by Cllr. P. O’Sullivan and seconded by Cllr. H. Dolan.

Cllr. P. O’Sullivan said that the town is expanding and that there should be a planner based permanently in the Civic Offices. He said that a planning officer based in the Civic Offices could deal with planning applications in the Ballinasloe Town area and the Ballinasloe Electoral Area with the expenses shared between Galway County Council and Ballinasloe Town Council. He said that currently the planners change regularly and so there is a need for continuity.

Mr. Kelly stated that it is important that a good planning service is delivered and he stated that Ballinasloe Town Council does provide a good service. He said that consideration has to be given to the volume of applications that the Town Council deals with and to the resource implications/utilisation of having a planner based fulltime in the Ballinasloe area. He said that if there were particular issues which members wished to look at to improve the planning service this would be done.

(ii) “That this Council requests the County Registrar to provide a Polling Booth in Creagh School for the people of Creagh living within the Urban Area. This booth to act for all Elections and Referenda. The boundaries to be defined by the registrar in consultation with this Council”.

The notice of motion was proposed by Cllr. P. O’Sullivan and seconded by Cllr. H. Dolan.

Cllr. P. O’ Sullivan said that 25% of the total on the register of elections for Ballinasloe are in the Creagh area but they cannot vote at the nearest polling station in Creagh School. It was agreed that Mr. Kelly would investigate the matter and report back at a later meeting of the Council.

6. CORRESPONDENCE

Mr. A. Farrell that motions for the Association of Municipal Authorities of Ireland conference are limited to two and must be under the headings as already circulated to members. Mr. Farrell said that motions must be submitted by the 30th June and would be agreed at the June meeting of the Council.

7. ANY OTHER BUSINESS

Cllr. S. Tully informed the members that a very successful and rewarding visit had taken place to France by the Ballinasloe Twinning Committee, Mental Health European Group and he said that he would like to extend the good wishes of the Mayor of Challonne to the members. He also said that he would like to acknowledge the Council’s monetary contribution to the trip. He said that he would also like to acknowledge the Health Service Executive staff who organized the trip so meticulously.

It was proposed by Cllr. P. O’Sullivan, seconded by Cllr. Lucy Lloyd Keighery and agreed that a letter of congratulations be issued to An Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern T.D on the successful re-establishment of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

It was agreed that a meeting of the Joint Policing Committee would be convened as soon as possible.

This concluded the business of the meeting.