Easkey row rumbles on
THE row between members of the public in Easkey and Easkey Community Council continues, with no resolution in sight.
The tension stemmed from what members of the public perceived to be the community council’s lack of consultation with the community when it came to making decisions on behalf of Easkey.
A number of public meetings were held for both sides to attempt to get their feelings across in an amicable way.
The Chief Executive of Sligo County Council Ciaran Hayes acted as mediator when the two sides came together recently, but nothing has been resolved.
Easkey Community Council agreed to open up the membership to members of the public at a recent AGM and handed out application forms. Almost 60 people applied for membership and paid their fee, and later received letters in the post informing them that their applications could not be finalised until the conflict of interest forms had been signed - the first they claim they had heard of it.
This meant that membership could not be considered for another few weeks, until the conflict of interest policies had been received and returned by everyone applying to join.
Now, there is a stand-off of sorts as members of the community claim that this is a delay tactic from the community council, who are keen to stress that they are making sure everything is by the book.
“They don’t want us to be members,” a spokesperson for the Easkey community told The Sligo Champion. “This is another obstacle being put in our way.”
A spokesperson for Easkey Community Council told The Sligo Champion: “We want to be fully transparent. At our last AGM we opened up the membership and we expected people to become members.
“We handed out membership forms that highlighted areas where people could get involved. We would be delighted to bump up numbers. But we have obligations and we want to abide by the rules of the charity regulators. With regards membership, we need to make sure everything is by the book.”
The spokesperson conceded that the conflict of interest policies should have been handed out on the night of the AGM with the membership forms.
“In hindsight, we should have made that conflict of interest form available on the night. That was our mistake. That was the wrong way to do it.
“We still want people to apply to be members, but we want them to read the conflict of interest form.
“It was construed as us trying to pull the wool over their eyes, but that’s not it at all. We want to be totally transparent. Nobody will be excluded.
“We want to do this right to protect the community council and to protect new members too. Nothing is hidden here.”