Lack of action on public landbank in Mayo town is 'negligence'
Cllr Richard Finn highlighted the issue.
A Claremorris councillor has asserted that a council landbank lying idle in Claremorris for years is a case of "negligence".
Cllr Richard Finn raised the issue at the December meeting of Mayo County Council when he called for the local authority to appoint an official to liaise with potential property investors.
“In Claremorris, we have 28 acres of ground for 30 years sitting there, bought at a price of €1.2m. On a number of occasions, different investors came along and had good ideas for it, but the answer coming back to us as public representatives from the council was 'we have other, better ideas for that'.
“Can we really afford to wait 30 years after purchasing a property before there is any development on it? That is not forward planning, it is backward planning. There has to be negligence involved where a site like this is left vacant in a town. If there was a go-to person there in charge of inward investment who could deal with people who have the money to invest in our towns and villages, this would not happen. I know these people. There would be rates and property taxes for the county involved in such deals.”
Chief executive Kevin Kelly said he would not want a message going out that the council was not open to forward investment, stating: “Any query is dealt with by myself or management. For example, the Director of Planning and myself met with someone this morning. They came in with a proposal and after half an hour they went out the door with our support. That is how we operate.
"The lands in Claremorris have been the subject of a lot of discussion and as far as I am aware, nothing was rejected, but nothing was worked into anything more firm either. So the door is always open for inward investment and every assistance possible is made available.”
Cllr Finn replied: “As far as I am aware, there is no excuse for any property in Mayo to lie idle for 30 years, bought with ratepayers and taxpayers' money. So I say to you Kevin Kelly, if you want to get involved, great, and if you have any proposal for this site, bring them forward. At least the local representatives should be entitled to know what is going on or else we should not be public representatives at all."
- Published as part of the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.
