Mayo local election candidate accused of spreading 'fake news'

CASTLEBAR councillors have accused a rival local election candidate of engaging in 'fake news' after they were criticised for their handling of the Castlebar Local Area Plan.

Harry Barrett, a former Castlebar Town Councillor and an Independent candidate in June's local elections accused the current councillors in the Castlebar Municipal District of 'a ‘shocking dereliction of duty’. He made his comments after the Office of The Planning Regulator asked for a number of adjustments to the Castlebar Local Area Plan after councillors zoned land for housing.

The Castlebar Local Area Plan was raised at the monthly meeting of the Castlebar Municipal District where councillors defended the amendments they made to the plan and criticised the comments made by Mr Barrett.

Fine Gael councillor Donna Sheridan said the seven councillors tried their 'damnedest' to ensure land was zoned for housing and accused Mr Barrett of engaging in fake news.

“To have a big headline and rubbish like this and it is not the first time we have seen it. I have seen a lot of fake headlines from people who try to get themselves airtime and it is really disingenuous to the general public. It is very disingenuous to the work we do here and the work we do collectively as a group for the positive development of this town.

“We worked together as a group and we tried our damnedest to ensure we had enough land zoned within this housing to get social and affordable and new housing. We did our best and it was taken out of our hands,” added Cllr Sheridan.

The Office of The Planning Regulator has taken issue with a number of sites in Castlebar zoned as ‘new residential in peripheral and non-sequential locations, and predominantly outside the CSO boundary of the town’.

In a letter to the Castlebar Municipal District, Minister for Local Government, Darragh O’Brien TD, has said that the local area plan is not compliant with national guidelines or the existing Mayo County Development Plan.

The Minister issued a draft direction in relation to the plan on January 16 and the public have until February 13 to make submissions on the plan.

The meeting heard that Kevin Kelly, Chief Executive of Mayo County Council will then report on the submissions received and this will be issued to the OPR and the Minister on March 12.

The OPR then has until April 2 to make recommendations to the Minister who in turn will have until May 14 to issue a direction on the plan.

Cllr Ger Deere also criticised the comments made by Mr Barrett regarding the plan.

"I take exception to a potential candidate whose headline was we made a hash of it. We worked and put hours into this and that type of headline to come out from a candidate. We listened to the views of people who contacted us and put a lot of effort into it and came up with the best plan we could," he said.

Cllr Cyril Burke said that councillors just zone land which had previously been zoned for housing while Fianna Fail councillor Blackie Gavin described how frustrating it is for councillors to put long hours into the plan and for the planning regulator to 'throw the lot to one side'.

Independent councillor Michael Kilcoyne said that the public can now make submissions and commented that 'some people who are very fond of writing and making statements' have the opportunity to have their say.

Cllr Kilcoyne added that the process showed that the power has been taken away from local councillors and 'mandarins in Dublin' have the final say.