Protest over Ballagh public realm works planned outside Council HQ 

A protest over the Ballaghaderreen public realm works will be staged this afternoon (Monday) outside Roscommon County Council’s headquarters in Roscommon Town.

A busload of retailers and residents from the West Roscommon town will travel to the county town to stage a peaceful demonstration outside council buildings before and after today’s plenary meeting of the local authority. 

“We’re doing this to have a presence there on the day of the council meeting and to further hammer home that we are not gone away. We are getting encouragement from all over the country on this,” outlined Ballaghaderreen businessman Brian Mulligan ahead of today’s protest.

The standoff between the council and the local community in Ballaghaderreen over the public realm works has now entered its eight week.

Retailers and residents are continuing to demand for major revisions to the public realm plans, especially in The Square, before they will withdraw their ongoing protest.

“What we want the council to do is to come back and absolutely no way close the road off in front of the bank. It’s vital to the traffic flow in the town. That cannot happen and we want the council to fix up what they have messed up because anything they have done to date has left the place more unsafe. By all means finish the footpaths but don’t bring them way out on the road,” he said.

Mr Mulligan referred to the public comments made on Friday by the Minister for Rural and Community Development, Dara Calleary, who has encouraged for more engagement when it came to Part 8 public realm projects. 

“That is a very firm statement from the Minister. This whole Part 8 process is now under the guidance of the Minister and that there will be compromise,” Mr Mulligan said.

It’s anticipated that the controversy will be raised at some stage during today’s council meeting.

The main contractor and his workforce have not been on site in Ballaghaderreen since the controversy arose, and work has ground to a halt since the daily morning protests in the town began on March 10th.

Members of the council executive did hold two separate informal meetings the week before last with Boyle Municipal District councillors and local Oireachtas members.

Despite this engagement, however, it’s understood that no progress has been made on ending the standoff between the local business community and the council.