Mayo councillors differ on abolition of town councils

A Castlebar-based county councillor has branded his political career “a disaster” since the abolition of town councils 11 years ago.

At a recent meeting of Mayo County Council, Cllr Blackie Gavin criticised the abolishment of town councils under the Local Government Reform Act 2014 brought in by then Minister for Local Government Phil Hogan.

Before this, Mayo had three urban district councils in Castlebar, Ballina and Westport, which were became known as town councils in 2002.

“I spent 20 years on the town council and it was the best years of my political career. It has been a disaster since I was elected to Mayo County Council,” said Cllr Gavin.

“Every town and village have suffered since the abolition of town councils in 2014. We have got €12m for capital projects in Castlebar and not a cent has been spent.” 

However, his fellow councillors did not share his sentiments with Independent Cllr Richard Finn calling the abolition one of the best things to happen in local government.

“Abolishing town councils have given our smaller towns a greater share of the cake. It was one of Phil Hogan’s better judgements.

“We are elected as county councillors not town councillors and have to spread the money around equally,” he said.

Fianna Fáil Cllr Damien Ryan said he also supported the abolition of the town councils as smaller towns did not have the "luxury" of a large base of ratepayers that a larger town has.

“If we are to be serious about balanced regional development, the local authorities without a large rates base need to be looked and addressed and the Department of Finance needs to step in,” he said.

In response, Cllr Gavin said that €1m is collected from pay and display parking meters in Castlebar that is not spent on local projects and said the average person on the street now has as much power as a county councillor.

“All our powers have been taken away from us. My job is to fight and make the Castlebar Municipal District great again,” he said.