The fate of one of Westport's last green spaces has led to the formation of a civic trust in the south Mayo town. The trust aims to represent the views of residents who are concerned about its character, its architecture and general ambience.
Following a recent public meeting, final negotiations are under way to decide whether the trust should be a charitable concern or a limited company.
According to the chairman of the trust ad-hoc committee, Mr Liamy McNally, the focus of the scheme will be primarily educational, concentrating on providing the public with information on the town's natural and historical amenities, which may or may not be affected by proposed new developments.
The trust will not in any way act as a protest group to oppose new developments sanctioned by the planning authorities.
Instead, it hopes to work with the local Westport Urban District Council and Mayo County Council in arriving at project decisions of benefit to the town.
"This is all about preservation and retaining what is good about the old Westport. We hope to be in a position to stage public lectures on issues such as local history and the environment.
"We just don't want to see developments going ahead willynilly and we do realise that a lot of developers are under pressure to complete projects before the deadline for the Tax Designation Status awarded to Westport runs out," said Mr McNally.
The impetus for the trust's formation was fuelled by a public meeting, attended by over 100 people, over the sale of one of the town's last green areas - the Bank of Ireland garden, in February last.
A consensus was reached at that meeting that the garden be retained as a public amenity for the public's use and pleasure.
But a number of tenders for the property have since been received by the bank, which offered the garden for sale by private treaty.
Westport UDC, which has submitted a tender, is interested in retaining as much of the garden as possible as a natural amenity, but may have to impinge on some of the grounds in its proposed development for council offices there.
The Westport Civic Trust group has also submitted a tender proposing the full retention of the garden, offering a sum that would not be considered a "development figure, but which isn't insulting either", according to Mr McNally.
The trust has the support and good will of a wide variety of parties who could be counted on to help in raising any funds that might be necessary, he added.