By Maura Fay
maura.fay@meathpost.com

It could be 2012 before Trim gets a playground because of Trim Area
Council’s decision to object to the proposed Porchfields location for
the playground, Trim Town Councillor Jimmy Peppard has said.
Cllr Peppard lambasted Trim Area Council’s objection to the playground
location, saying the question of where the playground goes was not
within their ambit.
Trim Area Council voted last week to ask Meath County Planners to come
up with alternative locations for the playground.
He said the Area Council would be better off dealing the “appalling
state of roads around Trim”. The Town Council had put money aside for
the playground for four years to buy equipment for the playground, he
said, and that eight out of the nine town councillors backed the
Porchfields as the best location for the playground.
“If the Area Council had a problem with the Porchfields location then
the proper way to have handled the issue was to write to the town
council and discuss their concerns,” Cllr Peppard told the Meath Post.
He criticised the Trim Area Manager whom he said should not have
allowed the Area Council to make the decision on the playground in the
first place.
The confusion over who has jurisdiction over the playground has arisen
causing “a lunatic situation”, said Cllr Peppard, because the
boundaries of Trim Town Council have not been extended despite the
growth of the town over the past few years. He said the Area Council
were usurping the power of others and the powers of the Town Council
were consistently being diluted and downgraded.
Cllr Peppard added that he would be calling on for orders to be
suspended at the Town Council meeting this Tuesday (September 9).