Statement on Westport Town Council Budget 2005

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" background="04b785a3.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>Councillor Keith Martin </B></FONT><B>     |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Councillor Keith Martin "><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="news21.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="News"><U><I><B><U>Back to news page</U></B></I></U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <IMG SRC="07189bd0.jpg" border=0 width="137" height="189" ALT="Large photo Councillor Keith Martin" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>Statement on Westport Town Council Budget 2005</I></div> <bR> <div> <I>Cllr Keith Martin, the Independent Westport Town Councillor says he is “bitterly disappointed” at the Westport Town Manager’s intransigence over bin charges.  Cllr Martin says that those with smaller bins and thus have less waste are being punished with a rise of over 15% while those with bigger 240 litre bins are getting an increase of just over 7%. </I></div> <bR> <div> <I>Cllr Martin says “This is unfair as the principle of paying by volume or weight is being ignored and those with less waste are being taxed more.  I made it very clear at the budget meeting that I felt this was very unfair as did others but we have been ignored. </I></div> <bR> <div> <I>The sad fact of the matter is that we as town councillors do not set the rate for domestic bin charges as the Bertie Ahern’s government took this power away from councillors in 2000 and gave it to Town and County Managers.  However after making representation on this matter as a public representative I am bitterly disappointed by the Westport Town Manager’s intransigence over the charges and his refusal to correct what I see as an unreasonable increase on the domestic bin rate on smaller bins.</I></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>