Plea for historic Mayo hotel to become a civic building

Castlebar's growing population demands proper civic buildings that can meet its needs, accoridng to Independent Councillor Harry Barrett.

He hit out: "The current situation cannot continue and this is why the Imperial Hotel must now be renovated to provide civic and administrative buildings for the people of the Castlebar district.

Barrett was speaking ahead of the July meeting of the Castlebar Municipal District, for which he has tabled a motion on the issue.

He outlined: "The town of Castlebar is projected to have 17,000 people by 2040 so you can double this number for the electoral area.

"This means that needs in housing, roads and engineering will also increase.

"The current space allocated to the Castlebar Municipal District will never deal with this increased future need.

"I have been made aware that there is a major problem with the lack of space in the housing department and that privacy to speak to officials is limited and that space for filing is a major concern.

"I am also unhappy with the fact that the municipal chamber is located above the canteen.

"It is very confined and to me, it has very little sense of the people it represents.

"This is not acceptable and it makes absolute sense now to use the historic Imperial Hotel, located on the Mall, as a proper municipal building for the people of the area.

"Other towns in the county have proper civic offices. Ballina is a fine example of what can be done.

"Money has been promised to renovate this area.

"A sum of €11.5 million was announced three years ago by Minister of State, Alan Dillon, so funding is not an issue.

"We thank him for that, so I would now like to think that he would support this cause based on the future needs of the people.

"My main objective now is to try and convince my council colleagues to make this a non-partisan decision so that we kill two birds with one stone: providing proper civic and administrative buildings for the people of this electoral area and renovating the historic Imperial Hotel."

Mayo County Council has been in talks with an investor interesting in purchasing the property.

But it remains unclear how those negotiations are progressing.