Castlebar councillors on kebab watch

Castlebar councillors to go on kebab watch


Edwin McGreal

Local councillors get a bad name. A lot of people think they just turn up at meetings, fill in their expenses forms and do precious little else until election time comes around and then you can’t walk outside without getting accosted by a vote-hungry politician.
But, people of Castlebar, fear not. You have in your town three selfless, altruistic councillors who will go above and beyond the call of duty for you.
Town Engineer SeΡn Higgins was telling last Thursday’s meeting of Castlebar Town Council that he couldn’t proceed with a prosecution against a kebab shop on Newantrim Street in the town for trading after 12 midnight until he had sufficient evidence of this. Their planning conditions don’t allow them to be open after midnight but anyone familiar with the joys of Newantrim Street at 3am will know this condition is regularly breached.
But, for a prosecution to proceed, the Town Engineer needed evidence of this that he could bring a case to court. So he was requesting CCTV footage from the Gardaí.
Aghast at how long this would take, Cllr Frank Durcan said he’d have no problem going down there after midnight and would testify in court if the kebab shop was open. Cllr Michael Kilcoyne said he would join him. And Cllr Brendan Henaghan said he’d tog for the mission too.
“Sure I’ll be going anyway to get a kebab on the way home,” he admitted. Whether Cllrs Durcan and Kilcoyne join him remains to be seen. A kebab is hardly an expense-able item, is it?