LMFM By Ruth O Connell The proposed legislation provides for any public land to be given to the LDA without the local authority, or councillors having any say
Social Democrats councillor Ronan Moore has called on his fellow members of Meath County Council to support his motion to reject the Land Development Agency Bill currently being proposed by the Government.
He claims it would be a further erosion of local democracy and the role of local representatives tasked with protecting public land, as he argues it does more to support developers than it does to reduce the cost of housing.
The motion has been tabled for the local authority s monthly meeting later today.
Louth County Council has undertaken to investigate a radical suggestion on how to identify owners of dogs who foul the streets.
Cllr Pio Smith said the local authority should consider setting up a DNA database of dogs as part of the licencing process.
A DNA test could be done on dog dirt and this dirt then returned to the dog owners. What we are doing simply isn t working. I expect this would solve the problem quickly. The cost of DNA testing could be built into the fine.
Cllr Smith added this has been done in London, France and Spain and resulted in a 70-90% reduction in the problem. The costs involved were minimal.
Dundalk councillor calls the Land Development Agency Bill a direct attack on Local Government Democracy
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Councillor Emma Coffey has called the Land Development Agency Bill a direct attack on Local Government Democracy.
Cllr Coffey at the Louth County Council meeting held last week raised her grave concerns about Section 49 and 56 of the Land Development Agency Bill, which with the stroke of a pen removes the County Councillor’s democratic powers and imposes an unprecedented obligation on a democratically elected individual Local Authority Member to co-operate with this new body.
Speaking about these issues in the Chamber Councillor Coffey stated: “There has never been any legislation which obliges an individual Councillor to co-operate with a body outside of her or his local authority.
There have been calls for firefighters in Louth to be given a greater priority in the rollout of the Covid-19 vaccination programme. Sinn Fein councillor Joanna.