Town fights back after imposition of dump

Enterprising people in Ballinasloe have combined to put life back into an area overlooked during the massive development of Galway city over the past 10 years.

Since January 1999 the Co Galway town has suffered what it sees as the indignity of having to accept refuse from all over Galway at its landfill site in Poolboy, until such time as a decision is made on the location of a "superdump" to cater for the city and county's refuse over the next 40 years.

Then in February the town was rocked by 100 job losses by A.T. Cross, traditionally one of its strongest employers. Last week, the company announced a decision to close its facility at Ballinasloe, with the loss of a further 60 permanent jobs.

The chief executive officer of Ballinasloe Chamber of Commerce, Mr Colm Croffy, says the dump announcement has galvanised the town's business people into action.

Although 65 per cent of tourists to Connemara pass through Ballinasloe, very few stop in the town. But it will be placed firmly on the tourism map next spring with the opening of a 35-berth marina on the River Suck, a tributary of the Shannon.

Mr Croffy says the dump announcement also gave an urgency to the completion of the 40-acre business park at Creagh, on an IDA -site formerly owned by the Western Health Board.

There has been considerable interest in the 27,000 sq ft advance factory in the business park. A French company, Valois SA, which manufactures dispensing systems for the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries, is to create 60 jobs at its new £7 million facility there.

The Ballinasloe Area Community Development Group has been involved in the development of an enterprise centre, adjacent to the business park, which opened last January. It has five tenant companies and employs more than 75 people.

Five other businesses have started up at various locations around Ballinasloe over the past year or so. But Mr Croffy admits that despite this the town still needs serious investment.

He said: "We have Athlone to the east of us and Galway to the west to push and pull investment away from us, and this is causing some concern. At the same time that 180 to 200 jobs were created in Ballinasloe, about 1,000 were created in Athlone and 2,500 in Galway. Yet both cities have capacity constraints."

He says Ballinasloe has the second largest area of any urban district council, and would be able to sustain a population of about 36,000 (the current population is 9,000), with a further hinterland population of up to 30,000.

Mr Croffy says: "The Celtic Tiger is not roaring here fully but when it does roar, it will be heard a lot longer than in other places. They will be a long time pouring concrete here before we ever reach the capacity problems they are having in other places.

"There is a very can-do and positive attitude amongst people in business here, particularly younger people, and as about 65 per cent of those operating businesses here are under the age of 40, this augurs well for the future of the town."