Kanturk Mallow draft budget of over €10 million gets the nod
THERE will be over €10 million in the Kanturk Mallow Municipal District coffers next year, which resulted in its draft budget for 2019 getting the thumbs up from councillors.
There were even broader smiles from councillors when they heard that there will be a total increase of income from the budget just shy of €500,000, which will be mainly allocated to roads.
The €10,221,441 budget got the universal nod of approval from all councillors.
For road transport and safety, a budget of €8,075,684 will be allocated and for water services nearly €58,000. For its environmental section, there will be €768,870 and for recreational and activity, a budget of just over €1.2 million. Finally, for land drainage costs will be €41,976.
Municipal District Officer Liz Donovan prepared a highly detailed report which went into the nooks and crannies of all sections of each department and their funding for next year.
There was plenty of good news as the street cleaning budget for Mallow has been increased by €28,535 and there is a further increase of €20,082 for burial grounds.
To operate Mallow Swimming Pool there is an increase of €35,778 and Mallow Castle has also got a welcome cash injection of just over €90,000.
Jim Moloney of Cork County Council said, twice, that they have been advised by the Finance Section that the roads section of the programme is a “snapshot” that was taken in August of this year and funding will be very much dependant on grants.
Roads and particularly local roads have always been at the top of councillors’ agendas and for this proposed draft budget it was no different. In the kitty, there will be slightly over €5 million for local roads and €2,432,247 for regular roads, for their maintenance and improvement.
On a positive note, he said that for the regional roads budget there was an increase of 18 per cent in 2018 and it is hoped that the same figure will apply in 2019.
Cllr Timmy Collins (Ind) said he was happy with the draft budget put forward.
“Any increase must be welcomed,” he said. His sentiment was echoed by Cllr John Paul O’Shea (FG) who said any bump up in regional road funding must be welcomed.