Councillors in West Clare have rejected their draft budget for 2019.
The proposal has been debated at a special meeting of the Municipal District, despite all three of the remaining districts giving their budgets the green light.
This year, the chief executive of Clare County Council has submitted reduced draft budget proposals for each of the four municipal districts in the county.
In each case, they’ve been slashed by €75,000 to address cost pressures and reduced income for the local authority.
West Clare has been allocated a draft budget of €201,700 for 2019, but that has now been rejected.
Four councillors have voted against the proposal, three voted in favour and one was absent.
It means the proposal goes back to the Chief Executive, after which it will be debated at the full council meeting next Monday.
Despite being the biggest single draft budget in the county, West Clare is the only area to reject it – Ennis, Shannon and Killaloe Municipal Districts have all accepted theirs.
A total of €199,400 has been approved by Ennis councillors and in Killaloe, they’ve voted to accept a budget of €182,800 – in both cases, €75,000 less than 2018.
Shannon, meanwhile, has approved its draft budget of €189,100 – again a drop of €75,000 on the previous year.
