This article is from page 20 of the 2008-05-27 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 20 JPG
CLARE County Council has been accused of gerrymandering – result- ing in thousands of people in the Miltown Malbay area being disen- franchised. The claim was made at last night’s Ennistymon meeting of Clare County Council, following a motion from Cllr Joe Arkins (FG) calling for the local authority to have a permanent focus in the town.
‘IT know the programme of area of- fices that was agreed by the council has now been completed. We need to look beyond that and especially at the case of Miltown Malbay,” he said.
“The people of Miltown Malbay feel that they have been bypassed by Clare County Council. They have lost their electorial area and they feel
that they have lost all their standing.
“We need to have some sort of presence in the town, if not full-time then at least some of the time. Clare County Council needs to have a pres- ence there. I’m asking the director to provide feasability of providing some sort of a service in the town.”
Cllr Martin Lafferty (IND) claims that Miltown Malbay has been un- der-represented for almost a decade.
“T believe that they were gerry- mandered and very badly gerryman- dered,” he said. “We are waiting for this famous independent commis- sion to report. I don’t believe that there was ever an independent com- mission. The people of Miltown have not yet realised they received a real shot back in 1999. With one swoop of a pen, it was gone.”