This article is from page 9 of the 2014-05-06 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 9 JPG
THREE of the county’s four town councils will hold their last ever monthly meeting today (Tuesday), with Kilrush bringing down the curtain on this soon to be extinct form of Government on Thursday.
The first authority to call time on its existence will be Ennis Town Council with its afternoon meeting today. Over 172 years of local government history will come to an end when the nine members of the council meet for the final time to discuss town business.
A number of items are up for discussion on the agenda including a planning report on a long awaited roundabout on the Tulla Road neat the Oakeligh Wood housing estate.
Councillors will discuss a right of way issue at the St Michael’s estate. Debate will also focus on a proposed one-way system in the Lifford Road area of town. A report on commercial rates is also due to be presented to councillors. Mayor of Ennis, Cllr Mary Coote Ryan (FG) will preside over the meeting. Later that evening both Shannon and Kilkee Town Council will also meet for the last time.
In Shannon the nine councillors will meet for the last time in the authorities 32-year history at 6.30pm.
While it is business as usual with the agenda, the councillors will also move to ensure the € 111,000 in the council budget is ringfensed for local projects. In Kilkee from 7pm the councillors will meet to hear an address from the mayor Paddy Collins and to view one last time on the finances of the council.
Meanwhile the last ever-monthly town council meeting in the county will be held in Kilrush on Thursday evening in the courthouse.
The nine councillors will show an element of defiance when they table just one joint motion calling “on the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government to establish a commission to bring forward recommendations on meaningful reform of local government at town council level that will eventually lead to the restoration of democratic structures at town council level in the near future.
The councillors previously voted to move the historic meeting from the Town Hall as the first ever Kilrush Town Council meeting was held in the courthouse.
For more than 170 years town councils have worked as the local authority of their town, but as of June 1 that responsibility will fall to Clare County Council and its 28 new councillors.