This article is from page 24 of the 2008-10-14 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 24 JPG
KILRUSH Town councillors were thinking votes and revenue as they considered the possibility of extend- ing the town boundary.
At Thursday’s monthly meet- ing of the local authority Cllr Tom Prendeville (FF) proposed that the council call on the Minister for En- vironment, Heritage and Local Gov- ernment to establish an independent commission in the adequacy of ex- isting legislation to simplify the pro- cedures for extending town bounda- ries.
“All towns are expanding and in Kilrush we too have experienced a building a boom. New housing es- tates have grown up around the pe-
riphery of the town and we have new communities living there who do not come under the town council remit. If we are to build a sense of belong- ing for people who live in these es- tates, it behoves us to make them feel part of our community,” he said.
“The existing legislation exiles these people within the wider county council framework. We need amend- ed legislation to bring these periph- eral suburban areas under the urban remit. I call on the minister to pro- vide for this eventuality when he is drawing up his proposal on the Re- form of Local Government.”
Cllr Stephen O’Gorman (FF) told the meeting that his daughter who lives in Kilrush is just outside the town boundary.
Come June the young woman will not be able to vote for her father in the local election.
““T remember there was a candidate outside the area who ran in the elec- tion and couldn’t vote for himself,’ said Cllr Collie Sweeney (Ind).
The mayor of Kilrush Liam O’Looney believed that a boundary change would also have a positive af- fect on the revenue of the town.
“Tesco and a lot of these businesses are outside the town boundary and there are a lot of levies from these outside the town,’ he said.