Climbing wall frustration sees Mayo councillor hitting out

THE climbing wall project at the Lough Lannagh complex in Castlebar has run into a funding shortfall.

And the matter is frustrating Councillor Blackie Gavin who has declared the current council as being 'the worst I have sat on since being elected in 1994'.

Mayo County Council, he has been told, is engaging with the department about the climbing wall funding issue.

Declaring himself 'fed up with it', Councillor Gavin sought an update on the project at the monthly meeting of the full council. It's a shovel-ready project, he noted, and he asked management: “Is it going to do done or not?”

There is nothing being done or rolled out in the county town, with a derelict hotel across the road from the council's HQ and over €11.5 million in URDF funding sanctioned for the town 10 years ago and nothing done.

“It's no wonder our towns and villages are falling down and it's no wonder people are getting angry,” he commented. They are asking what's happening, what's being done.

“This is the worst council I have sat on since I got elected in 1994,” he stated.

“We are bringing the message to the executive and it is falling on deaf ears.”

And it was backward the town and county is going.

There's no feedback, he continued, and when you left a meeting you wouldn't hear another word until the next one.

Councillor Gavin said he had attended an event recently at the place where he was born, bred and raised, but the communications department had put out the wrong photo to the newspapers, after people making the effort to turn up on the day.

He went on to tell the meeting that he would keep shouting for the people of the town for as long as they keep electing him. He was a proud Castlebar man but he was not happy as a public representative.

“I have never seen things as bad.

“I spent 20 years on the town council and it was the 20 best years of my political career.”

But now, the big towns, their money was being sucked away, with nothing being done.

And pleading with the chief executive, he implored: “I want action.”

Chief executive Kevin Kelly said the tendering process for the climbing wall has been completed and there is a gap between the funding available and the cost involved.

They do want to progress the project and are proactively engaging in discussions with the department.

* Funded under the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme