Councillors clash

Councillors clash over anti-social behaviour in Council estates

Michael Duffy

TWO Mayo county councillors were involved in heated exchanges at Mayo County Council’s budget meeting on Monday evening.
Cllr Harry Walsh stated that he felt Garda time was being wasted in different parts of the county on dealing with anti-social behaviour in Council estates.
“It is my view that all social housing developments should not be large in numbers and that the units in the estates be kept to a minimum. There can be no doubt that there is an increased chance of anti-social behaviour when large social housing estates are built by the Council,” said Mr Walsh.
However, Cllr Johnny Mee was extremely perturbed by Cllr Walsh’s comments, stating that he resented them very strongly.
“I think those sorts of comments are a slur on everyone who lives in a social housing estate in this county. There are as many problems in private housing estates in relation to anti-social behaviour. I live in a council estate myself and I could not have better neighbours. So put that in your pipe and smoke it, Cllr Walsh,” said Cllr Mee.
Cllr John Cribbin, chairperson of the Strategic Policy Committee on Housing, said it was wrong to claim there was anti-social behaviour in all social housing estates.
“There are problems in certain estates and we need to face up to these problems head-on. We have our anti-social behaviour policy in place and committees should be set up in these estates to liaise with the Council and find out what is the best way to deal with the problem.”
Cllr Johnny O’Malley said the reality was that people’s quality of life was being affected in a lot of estates and if the Council had to impose the ‘ultimate sanction’ and evict the offenders, then so be it