Mid Louth councillors agree €192K discretionary budget for 14 projects

Councillors of Ardee Municipal District held a special meeting this week, to agree on how a discretionary budget of €192,000 for projects in the municipal district would be spent.

A total of €192,500 was available to the councillors, which comprised a 2022 allocation of €75,000, as well as €117,500 that was remaining from the period 2016-2021. 14 separate projects are to benefit from the funding, covering items from St Patricks's Day supports to security measures for older peoples' homes.

The projects receiving the funding are as follows:

1. Christmas Lighting - €15,000 - Direct Grant under Section 66 to Ardee Traders
2. Senior Citizens Christmas functions - €25,000 - Direct Grant under Section 66 to Ardee Active Retirement
3. New Leaf Mid Louth Services - €15,000 -  Direct Grant under Section 66 to group
4. Sweeper in Dunleer - €10,000 - Direct Grant to Dunleer Tidy Towns under Section 66 to group
5. Ardee St. Patrick’s Day Support - €5,000 -  Direct Grant under Section 66 to Ardee Traders
6. Louth Village St. Patrick’s Day Support - €2,500 -  Direct Grant under Section 66 to Louth Abbey Vintage Club
7. Santa in Dunleer - €2,500 -  Direct Grant under Section 66 to to DCDB Ltd
8. Ardee Municipal District Tidy Town’s Projects (Louth Village, Tallanstown, Castlebellingham, Collon Community Together, Annagassan) - €5,000 -  Offer of assistance to Tidy Town’s Groups
9. Traffic Calming in Residential Areas - €15,000 -  Delivered by Louth County Council Operations with SEE discretion on use
10. Thumblock/Video/Sensor Light - €25,000 - CCTV, censor lights and thumb-locks for older peoples' homes
11. Exercise Equipment - Teenage Targeted, Fairgreen, Ardee - €15,000 - Delivered by Louth County Council Operations with Parks Superintendent discretion on use
12. Ardee MUGA Refurb with nets - €10,000 - Delivered by Louth County Council Operations with Parks Superintendent discretion on use
13. Ardee Sweeper - €42,000 - Louth County Council Operations to arrange
14. Dromin Graveyard Wall - €5,000 -  Engineering Assessment of Works Required

Mid Louth's Cllr John Sheridan told the Dundalk Democrat following the meeting that "every year the Mid Louth councillors get together and work hard on ensuring a good spread of this money. It's great to have some good news for our constituents!"

Describing the Discretionary fund, Cllr Sheridan said that "this is an important fund, it allows councillors put money to specific causes. In Mid-Louth, the Councillors always pool out budget together. In this budget we literally have funded projects to improve communities across Mid Louth and also to have very practical supports that will hopefully be of benefit to people in every part of Mid Louth."

Cllr Sheridan explained the reasons for funding some of the projects, saying that "through supporting New Leaf Youth services to Senior Citizens' parties, we hope this will help communities post covid from very young to our oldest residents. We also have funding for providing CCTV, censor lights and thumb-locks for older peoples' homes. We also put money to council specific items which we feel are badly needed like traffic calming and upgrading the Fair Green in Ardee".