Mayor vetoes comments on noise interference

“All options to resolve the issue will be fully explored.”

A MEMBER of the Board of the Belltable says he is disappointed that Mayor Jim Long refused to allow him speak on an issue pertaining to the city’s arts centre during a meeting of the city council this week. When Cllr Tom Shortt tried to raise the ongoing issue of noise coming from a nearby business operation, that Belltable management claim is having a negative impact on performances and audiences alike, he was refused to elaborate.

“I won’t allow it,” Mayor Long told Cllr Shortt who is a member of the Belltable Board of Directors, representing Limerick City Council.
City Hall director of services, Pat Dowling emphasised that all options to resolve the issue of noise interference will be fully explored and Cllr John Gilligan, speaking to the Limerick Post also believes the matter can be amicably resolved.
“I still think there is room for compromise on both sides that would lead to a resolution of the problem,” he said.
Adamant that last week performances at the Belltable were affected on three nights in a row by “a serious level of noise interference, where loud music on a sound system was played continuously in a lane at the rear of the Belltable, Cllr Shortt told the Limerick Post that members of the cast and the audience could clearly identify songs by Coldplay and the Irish band, The Script.
“This badly affected the performance and enjoyment of the performance being presented in the theatre and I believe that in this age of the MP3 player, people can listen to their music through earphones without upsetting their neighbours and businesses with loud music.
Conceding his “disappointment” that as the elected representative of the council on the Belltable Board he was denied time by the mayor to speak on the issue at Monday’s meeting of the council, Cllr Shortt said:
“I am happy, however, to now be able to report that in a round of contacts which took place last Friday and on Monday of this week, after last week’s difficulties at the Belltable, that the Board of the Arts Centre and officials of Limerick City Council have committed to working closely together now on a renewed effort to bring about an end to the problem.”

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