Kells electoral boundary changes cause some consternation among new estate residents

THE complicated boundary for Kells town council votes in new housing estates was outlined by returning officer Bill Sweeney when he spoke to local councillors last week at their October meeting. Headford Woods is outside the boundary, as is 'a significant amount' of Cherryhill, Archdeaconry View and all but eight houses in Balrath Woods. The draft register is being finalised for 8th December while the final register would be published by 15th February next, said Mr Sweeney. He urged everyone, particularly special and postal vote-holders, to check the draft, since no-one could assume their name continued to be on the list. The boundary for town council voters is the same as 2004 but the proposal to extend the town boundary was unlikely to be with the Department of Environment any earlier than mid-2009, he said. People were 'furious' with the time taken to change the boundaries, said Cllr Conor Ferguson, while Cllr Bryan Reilly said it was 'disappointing' that the process was no further ahead. The Fianna Fáil councillor said the effort to ensure that neither county nor town council lost revenue by the change was a major challenge. It was ludicrous that town residents who had moved out to estates had no vote, said Cllr Tommy Grimes. 'Given the slow pace of the Navan boundary extension, would Kells still be waiting in 2014?' he asked. He urged the returning officer and county registrar to consider using the Youthreach hall, off Fr MacCullen Park, as a polling station to facilitate north Kells voters. Cathaoirleach Brian Collins also urged voters to check the register. 'There are 600 people, many of them active in this town, who still have no vote because of successive governments,' he said. He joined Cllr Reilly in demanding changes at the town"s national school polling booths. Mr Sweeney said he would raise the Youthreach hall issue and recalled having to close voters inside the national school at closing time in the 2004 local elections because the booths there were 'extremely busy'.