Clones Town Councillor Ross Mealiff who is the Council’s representative on the board of the Association of Municipal Authorities of Ireland has warned that the grouping believes that Minister Noel Dempsey is planning to scrap Town Council elections in the future.

Mr Mealiff said recently that in County Monaghan this would mean a saving of just €150,000 to the exchequer as five Councils would be scrapped in Monaghan. However he claimed that in actual fact it would mean a diminution of local democracy as the Clones area would only have six members at County level instead of the present four County Councillors and nine at Town Council level.

The Independent councillor successfully fought for and got the support of his Town Council members recently in a bid to oppose these measures and said the Town Council would be meeting their Oireachtas members soon to seek their support against the proposal.

The next Town Council elections are scheduled for 2014 but Councillor Mealiff feels that Minister Dempsey may move as early as this month to have the first part of his proposal as a White Paper passed through the Dail. He added that this proposal was astounding as it is a well know fact that there are bigger voter turnouts at Town Council elections than there are at European or Oireachtas elections.

Pictured is Cllr Ross Mealiff