By Elizabeth Lee

Cllr William Paton tabled a notice of motion at the last meeting of Tullow Municipal District, calling on more gardaí for the town after a spate of crime over the past six months. He was prompted to make the call after ***The Nationalist*** highlighted an alarming number of crimes that have taken place in the town from around December last year to just recent weeks.

In the notice of motion, cllr Paton noted that ten years ago, Tullow Garda Station was assigned one sergeant-in-charge, two sergeants and 21 gardaí and that the station was manned 24 hours a day whereas today, the complement has been reduced to one sergeant-in-charge and 11 ordinary members, two of whom are allocated to Ballon and Hackestown.

The notice of motion read: “We, the members of Tullow Municipal District call on the local TDs Jennifer Murnane O’Connor, Kathleen Funchion, John McGuinness, John Paul Phelan and Minister Malcolm Noonan to make representations to Minister for Youth, Justice and Law Reform to lobby the Garda Commissioner to allocate additional staff to Tullow Garda Station to ensure that the station becomes a 24-hour station once again.”

Cllr John Pender said that he didn’t think that Tullow was “any worse than any other similar-sized town” but that he would, nevertheless, support the motion.

Cllr Paton then proposed the motion with cllr Pender seconding it.