Snippets from last night's town council meeting

I have copied this from the the Radio Kerry website so the formatting is a bit awry.  There seems to be no mention at the council meeting of the new one way traffic system in The Square. This seems to me to be causing confusion, with many motorists seemingly unaware of the changes. Listowel Town Council agrees not to raise  commercial rates

For the third year in a row, Listowel Town Council has agreed not to raise  its commercial rates. The decision was made as the local authority's budget for 2012 was  approved unanimously last night. Listowel Town Council has approved the budget for the next 12 months,  which proposes expenditure of €3,150,208. Commercial rates stay at the 2009 figure of €77.07. A 10%   reduction per cubic meter of water was also approved. Town Manager Charlie O'Sullivan told the chamber there would be  no increase in parking charges.He also said from this month on he would  introduce two hours free parking each Saturday, along with reduced parking  charges of 50 cent per hour for Charles Street and Courthouse Road. €3000 has been allocated toTidy Towns and the recently established  Listowel Independent Traders Association towards continuing to improve  the appearance of the town. The budget was unanimously approved, although disappointment was expressed at the reduction in the Local  Government Fund of almost nine per cent. However all councillors  accepted the difficulty in preparing such a budget, where the expectation  they need to do more with less may continue for many years to come.