Labour deny poster row in Westport

Labour deny Westport poster row


Anton McNulty

THE Labour party in Westport have denied suggestions that they are erecting campaign posters in the town and reneging on an all-party agreement not to put posters in the town.
A number of posters belonging to Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Labour were erected on the West Road within the town boundary at the beginning of the campaign but were removed by the Town Council. In an article in last week’s Mayo News it was reported that both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael accepted not to replace the posters but the Labour party refused and replaced the posters.
However, Labour councillor, Keith Martin told The Mayo News that it was ‘malicious’ to suggest there was a row over the issue nor were they erecting posters in the town. He said neither Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael nor the Town Council ever contacted him about their posters.
“The Labour Party have one poster erected on the West Road and it is half a mile from Tubberhill. David Fallon and I completely refute the thrust of the article and we know that the voters of Westport won’t be fooled by this kind of political shenanigans by other parties,” he said.
Cllr Martin added that the Town Council had no authority to remove their posters and were still awaiting their return. “I contacted the Town Council and I explained they had no power to remove the posters and there is no written agreement. This is 20 year old word of mouth agreement but we have always abided by it,” he said.
In a bid to get the Labour message across to the Westport public, Labour bought advertising space beside the Castlecourt Hotel and Cllr Martin defended their right to do so.
“It is not a poster, it is advertising space which was paid for, and was very expensive costing a couple of hundred euro a week. We raised money for it through three church gate collections and race nights and decided to spend the money on the bill board to get our message across.”