Louth CE says loss of €200k funding due to failure to secure lands

Louth Chief Executive Joan Martin, told members at the Louth County Council May meeting that the loss of €200,000 that was allocated for footpaths through the Town and Village Scheme, was due to the failure of the community groups to secure the land required to complete the footpaths and if the said that if they were council projects “we would have gone about most of them very differently”.

Cllr Maria Doyle raised the matter at the May meeting, where she told the members present that, of €376,000 awarded through the Town and Village Scheme for footpaths, including footpaths in Blackrock, €200,000 would not been drawn down due to the community groups being unable to secure the ownership of the lands required.

Cllr Doyle added that she hoped the footpath could be completed at some point and asked that a more collaborative approach be taken between community groups and the council.

Director of Services, Paddy Donnelly told the meeting that Louth County Council Community Team do work very closely with the community groups. He said that some groups are more experienced than others. Mr Donnelly added that they are seeing more and more challenges for community groups for reasons including increased planning requirements and said that it was not going to get any easier for them. He further added that they could not be held responsible for the failure to draw down the funds

Cllr Doyle said she hoped a collaborative way could be found to further projects like this. Ms Martin replied to say that while she did not disagree with her, council staff were not responsible for the loss of funding.