Go-ahead for new sensory garden in north Mayo

PLANS for a new sensory garden in Ballina have been approved by local councillors.

The garden will be located at Tom Ruane Park, on the Sligo Road in Ballina.

It will allow visitors to enjoy a wide variety of sensory park experiences, with the garden designed to provide opportunities to stimulate the senses, both individually and in a combination of ways that users may not usually encounter. It will include flower beds, a tarmac walkway and a water feature.

Welcoming the approval of a part 8 planning application by councillors at a Ballina Municipal District meeting, Deputy Dara Calleary, on social media, confirmed once the final design is in place, a tender will go out for the works in October. A preferred tender should be secured by Christmas and it is hoped works will get underway by March next and completed by June 2022.

Deputy Calleary extended congratulations to all involved to date, particularly FLOW Community Project and Ballina Community Clean Up who have driven the proposed project and have spearheaded the significant local fundraising drive since the turn of the year.

There's also some more good news for the area. In its submission to the council about the garden project, Inland Fisheries Ireland highlighted its intention to develop an accessible angling facility to the southwest of the site, at Polnammonagh.