Support for repair of Moy memorial after recent spate of attacks

MID Ulster District Council is to find out exactly who is responsible for the maintenance of the Moy war memorial and explore what options it has in terms of public realm work in the village.

A call for the research to be carried out was made by Councillors Walter Cuddy and Dominic Molloy during a meeting of the development committee on Wednesday, July 6.

Speaking at the meeting, Cllr Cuddy said repairing the war memorial following a recent series of attacks will be a “significant project” and asked the local authority to determine who is responsible for the work.

“I want to ask Council to find out whose responsibility is it to actually maintain the memorial,” said the UUP group leader.

“It looks well from the road but when you get close to it, all the cement is weathered away and there has been significant damage to it.

“One of the several incidents that have taken place recently saw one youth climb up the side of it. In the process of doing so, it looks as if he has scraped away quite a few of the lead letters on it.

“Repairing that will be a specialised job in itself so the question is, who is actually responsible for the maintenance of it? If it is Council’s responsibility I would like to see a report soon detailing what steps we have to take to get it to that standard.”

Sinn Fein Councillor Dominic Molloy supported Cllr Cuddy’s call for the council to determine who is responsible for the maintenance of the memorial and called on the council to explore what other repair work it could do in the village.

“Cllr Cuddy is right, there is a job of work to be done to find out what Council is responsible for and that is part of a bigger project in Moy in terms of the public realm,” he said

“Pavements need replaced and there is a big job of work in the village.

“I know there is a population limit on public realm work but is there another stage of public realm work for areas that do not meet the required threshold that can be looked at for our larger villages?”

A council officer confirmed the local authority will explore both requests and provide a paper with the answer to both questions in a future meeting.