Community urged to save its town council

Community urged to save its town council


Michael Duffy

WESTPORT Town Councillors made a stark admission at last week’s monthly meeting of the authority - they may not be able to save themselves but perhaps the public at large can.
Proposals emanating from the McCarthy Report, which intimated that a Local Government model without town councils would save the country millions, were this week backed up by a Review Group which published a report on Local Government Efficiency, stating that powers such as striking a yearly rate should be taken away from town councils.
The report in question, which is some 209 pages long, was summarisied to the councillors by Town Manager Martin Keating, and needless to say, the councillors present were not best pleased with the findings.
Cllr Myles Staunton said the report was ‘dreadful’ for town councils, particularly for ones like Westport, which he said have undoubtedly performed so well down through the years.
“If there is a council left, it will be left with no power and the ratepayers of this town will be paying into a countywide kitty, and that is not good for Westport.”
Cllr Keith Martin said first it was the public servants who were ‘vilified so the Government could make cuts’ and now it seemed the Local Government system was next on the Government’s list.
“Minister John Gormley is a former councillor himself and what he should really be doing is protecting local government, not destroying it.”
Cllr Ollie Gannon said it these proposals were to go ahead it would be to the detriment of Westport, a town that had been well served by the town council since 1908.
“Each town council should be judged on its merit and of the 88 town councils in this country, I know Westport is one of the best local authorities.”
Cllr Brendan Mulroy said he agreed with the other speakers but the reality was that to those outside the chamber, it looked like the council was ‘beating its own drum’.
“We have to look at the bigger picture. The onus is on all the other groups who work in tandem with this council to highlight our plight and beat the drum that bit louder.”
Cllr Christy Hyland blamed the Green Party, who he referred to as ‘the boys with the sandals and green berries’, stating that it was clear that the banking system began to crumble when decision-making powers were taken from local officials and centralised to headquarters.
Cllr Margaret Adams said the matter should be top of the agenda at the upcoming AGM of the AAMI in Bundoran.
Cllr Michael McLaughlin said he would have been one of the sceptics from the outside looking in before he was elected but he now knew how much work each elected representative put in every week.
Cathaoirleach of Westport Town Council, Cllr Tereasa McGuire, said the councillors did have to be careful as debating this issue was ‘a bit like asking turkeys to debate the abolition of Christmas’.
However, she did agree that the wider community at large should be campaigning to save their local town council and make John Gormley sit up and take notice of the alternatives on offer.