Council opts to leave rates level unchanged

Mullingar Town Council has opted not to up commercial rates for the coming meeting. At the Town Council"s budget meeting on Thursday night, Director of Finance, Eddie Hynes, revealed that the County Council was not recommending that the Town Council increase its rates from last year"s level.The news was welcomed by members. 'That would be a great help to us, we all know how bad business has been this year,' said Cllr. Jim Bourke (FF), with Cllr. Ken Glynn (FF) agreeing: 'It"s tough at the moment and there are a lot of attractions elsewhere and it"s vital that the Town and County Council fight to keep competitiveness.'Chairman of Mullingar Town Council, Cllr. Mick Dollard (Lab) concurred: 'We have listened to Cllr. Bourke and Cllr. Glynn about the commercial situation. It is a national problem and the Government need to look at the VAT rates here and compare them with the VAT rates in Northern Ireland, we should call on the Government to do that.'Cllr. Glynn agreed with Cllr. Dollard, while Cllr. Pat Collins (Lab) mentioned that he had read a recent survey where it said that 40% of shoppers in Northern Ireland are from the Republic.Local electionsMr. Hynes recommended that members set aside €5,000 for the forthcoming local elections, as it has done for the four years. That prudency meant, he said, the Council now has a budget of €25,000 to run the election.Town Hall ClockExamining the question of Town Hall Expenses - which ran over budget this year, to €10,418, although the budgeted figure had been just €6,000, Mr. Hynes proposed an allocation for 2009 of just €6,000 again. However, he said, that money would have to be spent repairing the clock in the Market House, while Director of Services George Lambden told the meeting estimates for that work come to between €2,000 and €5,000.School wardensDiscussing the €40,000 budgeted for school wardens, Cllr. Ken Glynn took the opportunity to compliment the local school wardens.'I meet Marion Glennon five days a week, she knows the children and I know her. She should be complemented along with the other wardens,' he said, while Cllr. Pat Collins said: 'The School Warden expenditure seems to be jumping every year. I think Westmeath County Council should be making a contribution towards that.'Cllr. Collins went on to say that he noticed that the Town Council had only four more years left to finish paying for the Market House building; 'So we"ll be rolling in the dosh by 2013,' he laughed.Other costsOther costs budgeted for in this year"s Estimates are: printing, advertising etc. €400; insurance €900; legal expenses €200; audit fees €2,700; members" expenses/conference fees €24,530; AMAI contribution €3,950; chairman"s allowance, €2,900; other expenses €800; St. Patrick"s Day Parade €1,500; Market House Development (repayment of loan) €29,585; civic functions €1,000; special projects €3,500; and members" representational allowance €21,800.Budgeted net expenditure for the year is €103,665.