A master plan sought for Mayo town centre with parking and green space top priorities

BALLINA Municipal District has been called upon to create an overall master plan for the town centre area.

The plan should include the preservation of a Mayo County Council-owned green area behind Humbert Street and Pearse Street to allow for the creation of a town centre park.

The request was submitted by all six local members of the council – namely Councillors Mark Duffy (Ind), Michael Loftus (Fianna Fáil), Jarlath Munnelly (Fine Gael), John O'Hara (Fine Gael), Annie May Reape (Fianna Fáil) and Seamus Weir (Ind), the cathaoirleach of Ballina MD – by way of a notice of motion.

Declan Turnbull, head of Ballina MD, said the authority is working on a master plan for the area in question that includes an enlarged car park, adding that they would endeavour to include some green areas or a park in the plan, with preliminary drawings to be presented to members in due course.

Councillor Duffy said the master plan should come first, with everything else – including extra car parking, perhaps multi-storey – to follow afterwards.

"If you put a car park there first, it will never be changed again," he warned. "We need to have a plan first before putting tar on grass."

Councillor Duffy added that the success of a master plan was obvious in the announcement of major funding for Castlebar recently and while there are some plans for Ballina town centre, including the creation of the 'Innovation Quarter' at the old Military Barracks, there is still plenty of development opportunity, both public and private.

"There's an opportunity now to create a master plan that caters to the needs of the whole town centre and the entire region," he said. "It's important that we think of it as a long-term project rather than just a short-term reaction to a need for car parking."

Councillor Reape said the Covid-19 pandemic illustrated how people need open spaces such as that proposed. A 'mini St. Stephen's Green' is what she would be thinking of, she added.

"It's a great idea, I feel," said Councillor John O'Hara. "It would improve the town 100-fold. If we got a cover for the Military Barracks area as well, it would be one of the best towns in terms of facilities."

Spring water

A second notice of motion, which tied in somewhat to the master plan proposal, was set down by Councillor Duffy, who called on Ballina MD to reinstate the old spring water tap on the grounds of the former Ballina Mineral Water Company. This would allow the public to access the tap from Pearse Street.

He noted that the programme for government states that the government will develop a scheme between local authorities and Irish Water to provide drinking water fountains in town centres nationwide. Ballina was fortunate to be sitting on a spring well and having ownership of the tap. The spring water should be made available for the public, as it used to be formerly while the tap was in private ownership.

Councillor Reape said this proposal would get 100% support from the public. "Too many of these things have gone from our town now," she noted.

In its response, the council said the proposal to install a tap from a source separate to the existing public supply would effectively mean the creation of a new private water supply, which would have to be registered as such and would also require treatment and monitoring to comply with European Union drinking water regulations.

The response, by water services senior executive engineer Eddie Munnelly, added: "I am not aware of a scheme to provide drinking water fountains but I presume that such fountains would be directly off public water supply rising mains and would involve drinking water totally compliant with drinking water regulations. This scenario applied to the refill point installed by Ballina MD/Irish Water at Kathleen Lynn Lane in 2019."

The cathaoirleach of Ballina MD, Councillor Seamus Weir, said he didn't think it a very positive report, although Mr. Turnbull said they weren't ruling out the supply but pointing out that it would take a lot of testing and treatment to make it compliant with the regulations.

Councillor Loftus noted that a spring well is being used by the public on a regular basis in Lahardane at present. Describing the level of bureaucracy over this proposal for Ballina as frustrating, he concluded: "I don't see the problem with it."