1996/99
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Pecking for Westport UDC over hen issue
1 April 1998
By Tom Shiel
A PROPOSED ban on hens and calves at Westport Market has ruffled feathers amongst stallholders who claim the Urban District Council is 'turning up its nose' at agriculture which has been the traditional mainstay of the region for generations.
Traditional stallholder Tom King claimed yesterday (Tue) the UDC seemed intent on turning the markets into a 'plastic, sanitised ghetto'.
Mr. King added: 'Tourists come here to see Irish life as it is. They want to see the cows and the ducks and the drakes. They have been and still are part of what we are'.
Regulation 9.9 of the UDC's Draft-Bye laws, relating to the Octagon area, proposes: 'Live animals or birds shall not be exhibited for sale or sold in the designated area'.
PROTEST
In a letter of protest to the UDC and Mayo County Council, Mr. King points out that many stallholders are involved in the Local Exchange Trading Systems (LETTS) where goods and services are bartered.
'A large number of our members keep hens and rely on the market for replacements', Mr. King pointed out in his letter. 'They also sell natural farm eggs through the Stall which contain no threat to the health of those who eat them and not should be promoted, not banned, as your Council proposes to do'.
Mr. King, a former solicitor, says he has investigated the other by-laws for Ballina and Galway and no similar restrictive by-laws exist.
Mayo County Secretary, Padraig Hughes wasn't available for comment on the matter yesterday (Tuesday).
