Council Update by Councillor Tom Behan
Community Wellbeing Initiative
I was honoured as Cathaoirleach of the Laytown/Bettystown Municipal District to announce the winners of the Community Wellbeing Initiative earlier this month, with current restrictions we could not hold the event in person and so we had to revert to an online awards presentation. Whilst our community groups could not be with us on the night, we did live stream the event, which gave them the opportunity to join in on the night. I was delighted to see so many groups from coastal Meath win so many awards, and I would like to add my note of thanks to everyone who participated, the amazing and selfless support they have given to the community over the past year, without which our restrictions would have been so much tougher. The awards were broken into four sections, Wellbeing, Entertainment, Social Inclusion and Innovative Projects. Our local winners on the night, and my congratulations to them again were, St Colmcilles GAA Club, East Coast Family Resource Centre and Bettystown Tidy Towns. There was also a special Merit award to Meath LGBTQ Support Group.
Traffic Calming Measures on Piltown Road
We have seen a lot of work being carried out on the Piltown road of late, with the improvement to the visibility at the Ministown Road junction and the work to the kerbing, along with that I was delighted to see my request for Yellow lines installed on the Piltown Road. I have been pushing for traffic calming on these roads for some time now, so it’s great to see that element installed. I have requested that further traffic calming measures be adopted across the district, particularly in Piltown and the Ministown road.
Laytown Car Park
I’m delighted to welcome the works that have been carried out on the Laytown Car Park, the works included the resurfacing and marking of the car park, installation of New Petrol Oil Interceptors, new drainage, Kerbing and public lighting, under this development of the Laytown Car park the Bottle banks will also be relocated to the opposite side of the Bridge, both are scheduled to open later on this month. I’m also happy to say that CCTV cameras will be installed here to help catch any illegal dumping on the site. We have also received a number of queries about the fencing around the car park and it was noted at our last meeting that there was now no access to the beach from the car park, Whilst under the current contract that no access can be provided but we have been assured that this will be provided once the contractors have finished.
Christmas Lights
The council agreed at our Municipal meeting that our festive budget this year would go towards the purchasing of a projector that would be used to project festive lights, This year you may have seen the lights are being used in Slane and will move throughout the area in the coming years. I would like to also congratulate all the communities that have made a huge effort throughout the area with their festive lighting and Community Christmas Trees this year.
Boyne Green Way
An Bórd Pleanála have recently written to Meath County Council seeking and extensive list of further information on a broad number of issues, this is now under review by the council, it is also expected that further bird surveys will be carried out next month.
County Development Plan
We are currently in the process of reviewing our County Development plan, due to current restrictions and in order to comply with health and safety guidelines our meetings can go on for no longer than 1 hour and 55 minuets. Unfortunately, this means we are not getting through our business as quickly as we had anticipated and it is now expected that we will now be moving into new dates in January to debate the plan.
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