Mayo View: Urban decay is undermining county's good reputation

The practice of Mayo County Council to purchase derelict buildings and leave them lying vacant for years is clearly not the template to address urban decay.

It shows that while the initial intention was good, the follow-through was anything but impressive.

Progress in dealing with sections of streets across the county falling into decay has been dismal, to say the very least.

And while one can accepts there can and are legal issues in regard to privately owned sites, there can be no such excuses when it comes to local government-owned properties.

The mere sight of vacant and rundown buildings undermines the morale of communities.

People are seeing parts of their towns and villages in unsightly and decaying conditions.

It is adverse to the image of a place when it looks rundown and visitors are left with a lasting impression that is far from positive.

Potential investors are also inclined to shy away from streets that look like eyesores due to years and decades of neglect.

In fairness, there are some good examples for urban renewal projects in this county.

But the reality is they are few and far between.

And this failure is happening during an era when society is crying out for new housing units.

There are currently 252 sites on the Derelict Sites Register in Mayo, down from 290 in previous years.

If the government is throwing millions of euro at the problem - as it consistently insists it is - then where is this money going.

It is abundantly obvious this money is not coming to towns like Ballina, Ballinrobe, Castlebar, Claremorris and Swinford and the question needs to be asked why.

We can't, on this occasion, blame our elected representatives, both local and national, because they have been raising these issues ad nauseum for years.

Nobody, sadly, is listening - and that's another debate entirely.