Thriving community delighted with news

The home town of Mayo football has seen heartbreaks over the year but yesterday Castlebar was delighted after being named as a hub town.

>“In 1991 we had 280 businesses and now we’ve over 610. There’s a great mood of confidence in the town,” said Castlebar Chamber of Commerce president Oliver Kelleher.

Castlebar is planning to build a 600-space multi-story car park to help shoppers in the town. The town was selected because of its importance to shopping, healthcare and education in the region. The location of the Galway/Mayo Institute of Technology in the town has been a boon.

“It took years to get it but now we have over 1,000 students spending money in the local shops, flats and nightclubs,” said Mr Kelleher.

He praised the role of Castlebar’s former Fianna Fáil TD, Padraig Flynn. The Ballina Chamber of Commerce said it hoped the hub status would bring much-needed employment to the town.

House prices in Ballina, at around 120,000 for a three-bedroomed house, are far cheaper than in Dublin and problems like traffic, crime and parking are virtually non-existent.

Ballina has a well-developed town centre, which acts as its main shopping location. It hopes to upgrade routes such as the N5 and the N7 to make it more accessible. “We have a huge hinterland of 35,000 people, serving everyone from Belmullet in Mayo to Enniscrone in Sligo and we’ll be lobbying for improvements,” said Ms Quinn.

But the chairman of the Ballina Street and Arts Festival sounded a note of caution.

“It is very good news for the town, provided that it will be implemented,” said Mark Winters.