Galway Bay fm newsroom - Loughrea area councillors have passed their budget for 2021.
The budget sets out an expenditure of over 10 million for the period, an increase of one million euro on 2020.
The 10 member group of councillors, which includes Gort/Kinvara, accepted the draft put before them at this week's meeting in County Hall, with some changes made to the allocation for community grants.
Community grants had been allocated just under 13 thousand in the draft, with councillors increasing the figure to 25 thousand euro by taking some funds from housing maintenance on the understanding that extra funds will come on stream through additional rents.
Head of Finance Ger Mullarkey told the meeting there are a number of significant items that have not yet been determined including the level of Government financial support for local authorities in 2021.
Other areas yet to be determined include what level of provision needs to be made for bad debt and increased vacancy rates in commercial properties.
Fine Gael councillor Jimmy McClearn proposed the budget with some amendments including that officials consider the population of each individual municipal district when making allocations for street cleaning.
