Ballina budget agreed

Ballina budget agreed

Áine Ryan

BALLINA Town Council is the first of the county’s four local authorities to adopt a budget for 2008 and, moreover, may once again strike the lowest rate in the country, according to Mayor Padraig Moore.
There was general acceptance of Town Manager, Mr Seamus Granahan’s projections for 2008 at last week’s specially convened Budget meeting. After a short adjournment and some modifications, it was agreed to a 2.9 per cent increase on last year’s rate (€64.70), setting the 2008 rate at €66.57. Gross expenditure was projected to be over €6.7 million with road transportation and safety the biggest projected expenditure at over €2 million, after councillors requested more funding for urban road improvements.
However, last year’s headline-grabbing subject –  30 per cent of local authority housing rents left uncollected – received just summary attention. “We have made good progress in recovering outstanding arrears of rents and this will continue,” said Mr Granahan.
Addressing the subject of the town’s road resurfacing – in light of the recent Bord Gáis installations – Mr Granahan said he hoped that the major works would be completed in the coming week. “We do appreciate that there has been much inconvenience for business people and would like to thank the traders. We hope to open a number of link roads to facilitate increased Christmas traffic,” said Mr Granahan.
He revealed there was an allocation in the 2008 budget for a new CCTV camera system for the town. This would involve a three-year funding commitment for the much-needed service which will be operated by the Chamber of Commerce, he added.
Mr Granahan also announced that the authority was in the process of preparing a number of key Compulsory Acquisition Orders (CPOs).
“During 2007, Ballina Town Council acquired a major property in Market Square. We are one of the few towns in the country that has a very old garrison barracks [intact] – a protected structure. We will be putting that on the market for private investment in 2008 and along with [Mayo County Council’s recently-acquired building] for the Jackie Clarke collection, we could promote Ballina as a heritage town,” said Mr Granahan.
Other allocations discussed at the meeting were €20,000 for the Friends of Leigue (a cemetery restoration project) and €36,000 for industrial and tourism promotion. Councillors also argued that street cleaning, which was projected at €390,000, should be capped at €360,000.