Ballina group require €27,000 to replace much-needed item

Members of Ballina Tidy Towns have warned that grass will grow "higher than buildings" in the town if they do not find €27,000 to replace their run-down industrial lawnmower.

Chairperson of the Ballina Tidy Towns, Anne-Marie Forbes, gave a presentation at last week’s meeting of the Ballina Municipal District in which she outlined "the grave issue". 

Ms Forbes told councillors that the remit of the Ballina Tidy Towns group includes grass-cutting along some of the town’s main thoroughfares and approach roads from March to October each year but the future of this work is currently under threat. A new mower will cost around €27,000 including VAT.

“Seven years ago, we replaced our old mower with the help of LEADER funding and the current mower has come to the end of the road,” she said. “It came to an end at the start of 2024 really. We kept repairing it to keep it going but that's unsustainable. The mower is ready for RIP.ie."

Ms Forbes said there would be a public outcry in Ballina if the grass-cutting programme cannot proceed as planned.

“The grass will be higher than buildings. There will be public outcry but the grass cutting will not start on March 1 if we don’t have a working mower,” she said.

The meeting also heard of shortfalls in the Tidy Towns budget which have been exacerbated by a reduction in the group's General Municipal Allocation (GMA).

Ms Forbes said the group received €25,000 in GMA funding ten years ago but this had reduced to €18,000 in 2023 and €19,000 in 2024. With a total expenditure of around €22,000 in 2023, the voluntary group has a shortfall of around €4,000 per annum. She added they would be looking to restore their GMA to €25,000 in addition to obtaining funding for the new mower, costing €27,000.

The councillors agreed, at the suggestion of Fianna Fáil Cllr Michael Loftus, to help the Tidy Towns come up with match funding of 25% should they apply through LEADER for funding for the mower and to help them identify other funding streams.

Fine Gael Cllr John O'Hara called for progress to be made on the LEADER fund in Mayo because other counties have already progressed projects and allocations under the newest LEADER programme.

"LEADER has been neglected and the longer it's left, we might not be able to draw it down at all," he said.