COMMUNITY NOTES: BALLINA - WESTERN PEOPLE (MARCH 4 EDITION)
Tenders are been sought for the building of the new 5th Mayo Scout and Community Hall in Belleek, Ballina, for which funding of €1,152,000 was secured 11 months ago under the Community Centres Investment Fund.
The new centre will benefit the 5th Mayo Scout Unit and other groups using the recreational facilities of Belleek Forest.
Long-serving member of the 5th Mayo Scout Unit Benny Walkin, who has been involved with the organisation for 61 years, said that this is a great news story for Ballina.
“I want to thank everyone who has helped to get us to this stage of the process, especially Minister Dara Calleary, himself a former Boy Scout in the Ballina Unit, along with Mayo North East, Coillte, Ballina Municipal District councillors and the Head of Ballina Municipal District, Declan Turnbull,” said Benny.
“There are many others who have contributed as well, and everyone’s help is greatly appreciated,” he said.
The tender for the proposed Ballina Scout Den and Community Centre project was published last week. The project site is located at Belleek, with an approximate required building area between 316 and 400 square metres, situated on a site size of 0.306 hectares.
The tender notice explains that the project is a joint venture involving Mayo North East LEADER Partnership CLG and 5th Mayo Scout Group Ballina CLG, and is to procure a community centre in a part of Ballina where there is none and to open it to several community groups, especially the many organisations that visit Belleek Forest.
The 5th Mayo Scout Troop was originally established in Ballina in 1933 and operated from the former boys’ school on Teeling Street for a number of years. Thousands of members have passed through its ranks since the group’s foundation.
The current Scout Den at Teeling Street, which was built in 1969 on church-owned property at the rear of the former Ballina Town Hall, is no longer fit for purpose for the 100 members of the unit, which operates Beaver, Cub, Scout and Venturer sections for young people in the area.
It is hoped that the sod-turning ceremony for the development will take place in early summer and that the new Scout Hall can be occupied in the first half of 2026.
