Anton McNulty
The cost of a new footbridge at Lough Lannagh was at the centre of controversy at a meeting of Castlebar Town Council with Independent councillor Frank Durcan calling on the Council to invite Mayo contractors to tender for the project.
The new single span pedestrian bridge is estimated to cost in the region of €600,000 and will be part of the 4km Lough Lannagh loop walk which the Council believes will be a major tourism asset to the town. The Town Manager of Castlebar Town Council, Seamus Granahan said that Lough Lannagh was an ‘untapped resource’ and the policy of the council was to extend its walking and cycle routes towards the Museum of Country Life in Turlough.
The new bridge will be a 40 metre single span bridge and according to Mr Granahan, this design was chosen to eliminate building in the lake and avoiding the need for environment reports and surveys. He said that they were confident of getting funding to develop the Loop Walk from Fáilte Ireland and urged Councillors to back the bridge.
“It is time to move and go for it,” he told councillors at last week’s meeting of Castlebar Town Council. “We are anxious to push ahead and build the bridge and we need it done by the early summer. That is our plan and target and at the moment we are in a healthy state due to the foresight of the previous council. We need to push on and go for it.”
The project was welcomed in the most part by all the councillors with Cllr Michael Kilcoyne saying that there was great potential for job creation in the leisure industry while Cllr Eugene McCormack said they did not want a ‘Mickey Mouse and cheap job’.
Cllr Frank Durcan said he project would be a ‘tremendous development when finished’ but said he could not support the construction of the bridge at its current cost. He also criticised that need to employ consultants when Mayo County Council employs architects and engineers and questioned why no company from Mayo was asked to tender for the construction of the bridge.
“I know a Castlebar man who is wondering why he was not asked to put in a quote for the construction of this bridge. This man is fully capable and qualified to do it but he has not been asked. Instead we employ a consultant from Galway who does not pay a ha-penny to the town or county but takes everything out,” he said.
Cllr Durcan said the engineer from Castlebar built a foot bridge for the Greenway in Mulranny and asked for the new bridge to be tendered for the third time. He also said that Lough Lannagh was a no-go area for the ordinary person once darkness falls.
Mr Granahan said the bridge had been advertised on e-tenders and nobody had been excluded from the tendering process and it had been a very stringent process. He also added that it was not legally possible to do what Cllr Durcan had proposed.
Mr Granahan added that he has been a Town Manager of different towns for the last ten years and has not made a ‘daft decision’ before which would jeopardise the town’s finances.
Cllr Blackie Gavin supported Cllr Durcan by saying he was very dissapointed that no local contractor had been asked to tender and said the Castlebar firm of engineers were one of the best in the country.
However, the Town Manager was backed by the other councillors who said they should have confidence in his judgement. Cllr Harry Barrett said he was satisfied with the cost of the bridge and said that ‘if we build it they will come’. He said Castlebar was not mentioned in a tourism supplement of a national newspaper and it was up to them to put the town on the national map.
Town Mayor, Cllr Ger Deere said the walkway had huge potential for the town and described Lough Lannagh as a ‘jewel in the crown of Castlebar’. He added that the councillors should have confidence in the Manager instead of ‘playing to the gallery’.
