Paying for Mayo town's Christmas lights up for discussion

CHRISTMAS lights in Westport and how to meet the cost of them - €60,000 - came up for discussion on a warm, sunny day at the May West Mayo Municipal District meeting.

Councillor Peter Flynn is concerned that new council members, who will be installed next month, may find themselves facing a funding headache, as happened him and Councillor Johnny O'Malley after their election five years ago.

Back then, the four local councillors came together to provide funding and Westport now has some of the best Christmas lights in the country.

However, no one knows who will be re-elected on June 7, and he didn't want new councillors facing the same situation where there are question marks over the lights or trees next Christmas.

Municipal head Padraic Walsh said they were lucky to get funding opportunities the past few years to build up a lot of new lights.

Erecting and removing them involves appointing an electrical contractor, and there's also a cost with buying trees, etcetera.

He estimated the Christmas lighting scheme will cost in the region of €60,000. The current GMA contribution towards that is around €20,000.

Mr. Walsh said he expected members who are around the table will support them. If not, the display would have to be cut back.

The bill, he added, comes after Christmas.

If re-elected, he won't be found wanting, Councillor Christy Hyland told the meeting.

Given the figure of €60,000, they would be asked what are you doing with it, he said, adding they can't ignore other areas such as Newport, Louisburgh and Aughagower.

Councillor Johnny O'Malley said the matter can be dealt with in the new year, though he felt €60,000 is a lot for lights and needed to be looked at. It wasn't fair to be asking councillors to fund it, and other towns only get a little bit off them.

This is councillors' discretionary money and it is a decision ultimately for councillors, said Councillor Flynn.

Councillor Gerry Coyle felt it was 'ridiculous' that they were discussing Christmas lights when they had 'a thousand and one' other things to be looking at besides this.