Big increase in council funds for districts
THE elected members of Wicklow County Council have voted in favour of adopting the Local Authority Budget for 2018 which will include an increase in funding for all five Municipal Districts.
The €93 million budget is similar to last year, with most of the funding being non discretionary and close to a half going toward the Local Authority payroll.
In his concluding notes contained within the draft budget document, Wicklow County Council Chief Executive Frank Curran stated that Wicklow remained under-resourced compared to other counties.
‘As I stated in the Local Property Tax (LPT) report in September, Wicklow’s income from the general purpose grant did not compare favourably with other comparable local authorities. Our general purpose grant allocation for 2014 is now being used as our LPT baseline going forward.
‘Comparing the 2017 annual budget figures, Wicklow spends less per person than the national average across all services. We have previously made submissions to central government to address this under-resourcing and I intend to raise the matter again with Department officials in the near future. However, we need to continually pursue this issue at both official level and also thorough our elected representatives.’
Last year Municipal Districts in Wicklow, Arklow, Baltinglass, Bray and Greystones had €900,000 to share between them. This year the figure has jumped to €1.9 million, with the majority going toward paths and public lighting.
Wicklow County Council Cathaoirleach, Cllr Edward Timmins, welcomed the large increase in discretionary funding for each district.
After the budget meeting he said: ‘additionally the local areas will have a bigger say over how roads funding is spent. These decisions will still have to be based on how the roads are rated but we should still have a say. That, along with increased funding for the districts, are the two initiatives I looked for when I became Chairman. The Chief Executive, the Finance Director and the Roads Director have worked with us to help achieve these aims. The large support from Councillors in the budget vote is also welcome, with only three against.’ A 15-year-old student attending Colaiste Chill Mhantain will compete against some of the brightest young minds the world has to offer in the 14 th International Junior Science Olympiad taking place in the Netherlands.
Mark Britchfield is the first County Wicklow student to qualify fr the competition in its fourteen year history.
He firstly had to qualify for the Irish Junior Science Olympiad.
Mark was among 100 students nationwide who were shortlisted as a result of his combined top scores in maths and science in the Junior Certificate.
The competition took place in DCU in October and Mark was selected as one of the top-six students to represent Ireland at the Junior Science Olympiad, competing against 300 students from 50 countries around the world as they test their knowledge and skills in physics, biology and chemistry.
This year’s theme is ‘water and sustainability.’ Two individual theoretical tests are followed by a practicum, which is a team effort for the students.
The programme around the tests gives the students the opportunity to take a look behind the scenes at Dutch, internationally oriented companies, work on real world challenges related to the theme and of course visit tourist highlights.
Wicklow hopes rest on Mark, with the competition running from Sunday, December 3, through to Tuesday, December 12.