Councillor criticizes 'wrong and misleading' funding announcements

A local councillor has hit out at Government funding announcements, describing them as ‘wrong and misleading,’ particularly in the buildup to a General Election.

Cllr Paul Lawless made the comments at last week’s meeting of the Claremorris-Swinford Municipal District, where he sought an update on the delayed Active Travel and Smarter Travel projects for Ballyhaunis.

Funding previously allocated to the town under these two schemes was later withdrawn by the National Transport Authority (NTA) and in response to Cllr Lawless, the Head of Active Travel with Mayo County Council Cathy Mellett said there are no projects related to Ballyhaunis funded under the 2024 Active Travel Investment Programme.

Cllr Lawless said this has caused a lot of frustration in Ballyhaunis.

“It was utterly bizarre and wrong to announce an Active Travel project in Ballyhaunis to great fanfare and then suddenly the money just disappears,” he said. “It is unfair to the people of the town.”

Cllr Alma Gallagher said it is essential that these works go ahead and they cannot be allowed to be amalgamated into other plans, such as the Ballyhaunis Town Centre First Plan.

“Ballyhaunis is a unique town in that 16% of its workforce is walking to work. We have a large employee base and the decommitment of funding is a disgrace,” she said.

“We need assurance that this will be prioritized. Active Travel cannot be part of the Town Centre First Plan either, they cannot be seen to be amalgamated.” She added that east Mayo feels left behind and she would like to see equal distribution of funding across the county.

Cllr Patsy O’Brien said he was disappointed by the response and said he was ‘sick and tired’ of ‘fanfare announcements.’

“Until an announcement comes in with full funding from Government, they shouldn’t be announced. We don’t want to give people false hope.”

Area engineer Conrad Harley explained that the team responsible for Active Travel has evolved since it was first conceived and they are now looking at projects where the plan comes first and is part of a bigger, overall link within an area.

Director of Roads and the Claremorris-Swinford MD Tom Gilligan said the Council needs ‘sustainable’ funding for projects, where they are also receiving funding to maintain a project once it is completed.

Cllr Lawless said there should be greater caution with announcing these projects so far in advance in future.

“These public announcements are just wrong and misleading. We’re in the buildup to a General Election and there will be lots of promises made that won’t be followed up on,” he said.

Cllr Michael Burke remarked; “We also had a lot of promises made in the run up to the Local Elections, some of which were very misleading.”

“So don’t throw stones,” he said.