Councillors want debris cleared from waterways

Louisburgh councillor Chris Maxwell has claimed that people can no longer fish in the town river due to trees blocking the waterways and says the land in areas from Cregganbaun towards Leenane are being flooded and local roads destroyed due to the failure of the council to remove debris from waterways. 

Cllr Maxwell told last week's meeting of Westport Belmullet that he was aware the Local Authority Waters Programme, working on behalf of local authorities to protect water quality, was in the area "but the people up and down the Bunowen River don’t know what’s going on as they just seem to be doing a study". 

"All people want is for the overhanging trees to be taken out. That is the priority they should be looking at. 

"If LAWPRO want to get on with doing a bit of work, they have to bring the farmers with them. 

"We had a great angling business going back into Louisburgh, but it is gone, decimated, because the river is completely closed in and anglers can’t cast a line out to do their fishing. Even the poachers have given up. 

"This is a disastrous situation, and it is answers we want. I am coming in here two years nearly now and the same issues are coming up, and we don’t seem to be making progress.” 

Cllr John O’Malley, lobbying for the cleaning of the Mayour River at Carraholly, told municipal district management: “If it is the case ye don’t have the outdoor staff to clean up the rivers, then let us know and we will bring it up with the [council CEO], because it seems there is nobody to do anything and it is impossible to get work done.”

• Published as part of the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.