No Kells rate increase but heritage centre to close for year

Kells businesses will not be faced with a rate increase next year following the adoption of the Kells Town Council budget for 2010 on Monday night. Councillors voted to adopt a budget, which includes a zero increase in parking charges and rates, but which will see the town's heritage centre remain closed for the year. Some of the centre's artefacts will be transferred instead to the town hall where tourist information services would be offered. Councillors voted against a proposal by the council's three Fianna Fail members to implement a two per cent reduction in rates in the town and to cut all spending on conferences and foreign travel. The council voted instead for a budget which saw a cut of €4,000 in the amount spent on conferences and foreign travel, but which will see €8,000 spent on upgrading the town's two children's playgrounds, a donation of €10,000 towards Kells Road Races and the setting aside of €18,000 towards the repair of a dangerous wall which has seen the closure of a roadway in Fr McCullen Park. Councillors also agreed to implement free parking in the town from 11am on Friday right up until Christmas to encourage people to shop in Kells. The chairman, Cllr Brian Curran, urged local workers to park in the long-stay car parks and leave the centre of town to people coming in to do their shopping. Other measures in the budget include an €8,000 allocation towards a new canopy for the famous Kells High Cross and €3,000 towards winter street gritting in the town. Councillors were told that Government funding to the council was down eight per cent on last year. The Town Clerk, Jarlath Flanagan, said Meath had the highest ratio of population to council staff members in the mid-east region with one staff member to 219 in comparison to one for every 89 people in Longford. He warned that public expectation on availability of services would have to change in light of the current position and the reduction in the budget income would further impact on the council's ability of maintaining existing staff numbers. The town engineer, Shane Carroll, said that retaining wall at Fr McCullen Park was dangerous and the road would have to remain closed for health and safety reasons until the problem was resolved. He explained that a consultant had reconmmended the removal of the existing structure and the building of a new wall at an estimated cost €88,000. He said that the problem would not be solved quickly and there would have to be discussions with all stakeholders before work could begin. Area manager Brendan McGrath said it was an extremely tight budget and they were entering 2010 with a deficit - something that hadn't happened in many years. He said that until the town's rate base increased, they couldn't provide the level of services they would want. The budget was adopted by six votes to three with Cllrs Bryan Reilly, Sean Drew and Frank Lynch voting against it. Their proposal for a two per cent decrease in rates was defeated by six votes to three.