Cllr Keith Martin, the Labour Party's candidate for the Westport Electoral Area, says he is shocked at the decision of the Electoral Area Boundary Committee to remove Newport East and its 1,021 citizens from the Westport Electoral Area and include them in the Belmullet area. Cllr Martin says the area is being transfered from Westport to ensure that Belmullet keeps its four seats on Mayo County Council.
Cllr Martin says "There has always been a strong connection between the townlands of Newport and Westport and to see Newport East sliced off into the administration of the Belmullet Electoral Area makes no sense in my opinion. The Westport Electoral area still includes Glenhest but geographically it is very distorted with the removal of Newport East.
"It would have made more sense to have a greater trade off between the Belmullet and Ballina Electoral Areas which are closer to each other than to move Newport East into Belmullet."
The review was approved by Cabinet on Tuesday June 17th as part of the national Independent review of the boundaries for next year's local elections. The review committees, which were established in January by the Minister for the Environment, were both chaired by Niall Callan, a former Secretary General of the Department.
"I am shocked at such a large chunk of the Westport Electoral Area with close connections to Westport can just be cut off to accommodate the retention of Belmullet's four seats. It makes no sense to distort the Westport Electoral Area and remove Newport East" concluded the Labour councillor.
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1 comment:
Is Cllr. Chambers putting his name forward next year, if not who will be looking for votes other than yourself.
PS. Who is the old chaps with Mr De Rossa?>
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