Failure to fund new town hall 'will be a slight' on Mayo town

Failure to deliver a new town hall to Ballinrobe will be seen as a slight on the town, according to Michael Sweeney, chair of Ballinrobe Civic, Arts and Amenity Company CLG, who addressed the recent meeting of Claremorris-Swinford Municipal District at the Tacú Centre in Ballinrobe.

Mr Sweeney appealed to councillors and management to do all in their power to ensure the proposed multi-million euro arts and cultural centre amenity becomes a reality. He said Ballinrobe had lost the beating heart of its community 30 years ago when the old town hall closed. Over the years. plans were made to recreate it on the original site on The Neale Road, with funding secured from Mayo County Council and a successful tender to do the works, but when Covid-19 hit in 2020, no further fundraising could be carried out.

Mr Sweeney said the local committee was very thankful when the old Valkenburg Hotel building subsequently came on stream and the town supported the project with over €400,000 in fundraising to get the property under community ownership. After that, they contacted South West Mayo Development Company to lead an application through the Rural Regeneration and Development Fund and the project was successfully awarded €4.59 million in 2022. However, in line with it being a protected structure and sustainability being a main factor, as well as inflation and rising construction costs, additional funding is now required and a strong submission has been sent to the Department of Community and Rural Development, which they are hopeful will prove successful.

Mr Sweeney noted that a requirement to raise match funding of 10% poses a real challenge but said the momentum is there in the town to make sure the project happens. 

“It is not common that a community would start such a project from the ground up, raise over €400,000, buy a property and apply to a fund suitable for it. It is difficult to describe how transformational this will be for Ballinrobe, a town that has no hotel. It will bring life into the town centre, footfall, commerce and accommodation. 

"It is not just social and cultural events that will be accommodated, but also other events that have been going out of town, for example in relation to the GAA and rugby and soccer events. We estimate we lost between €35,000 to €40,000 to this community on each occasion those events did go to other towns. So, this town hall project has to happen and if funding is not provided, it will be seen as a slight on the town.” 

Director of Services Tom Gilligan assured Mr Sweeney that Mayo Co Council is very supportive of the whole project while Cllr Damien Ryan said: “It is an ongoing onerous project with many obstacles and challenges. It comes under the Department of our own TD Dara Calleary, who we have to work with as hard as we can to get it back on track. Not delivering this for the town is not on.” 

Cllr Gerry Murray added that government funding should stand at 95%, saying: “Every town has a major capital project but the big impediment is the local contribution.”

• Published as part of the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.