A new plan for Mullingar's historic heart will focus on pedestrians and not cars

The creation of a civic and cultural quarter for Mullingar taking in the arts centre, county buildings, town park, railway station, was discussed at last week’s meeting of Mullingar Municipal District.

Plans drawn up by planning and landscape specialists, Brady Shipman Martin, were presented to councillors at the meeting in Castlepollard by director of services David Hogan, who said currently everything in Mullingar was designed around the car and not around pedestrians or cyclists.

“Mullingar Arts Centre, Comhaltas Centre, County Buildings, the old jailhouse wall, there are a number of important buildings but very little has been done about it,” said Mr Hogan.

“We wanted to improve its links up to the Market Square, the Cathedral and the railway station – to me, this is the heart of Mullingar, all contained within the canal and the River Brosna and yet very little has been made of it. Those are the challenges we are facing,” he said.

“We have a lot of Tarmac and spaces given over to cars, we’re trying to improve the Brosna and its links to the Tranquillity Garden and the town park and create a pedestrianised space to County Buildings.”

Using Westport as an example of where “the pedestrian seems to have ownership of the town”, Mr Hogan said that removing the roundabout in front of the arts centre and extending the kerbing of that area to create a pedestrian walkway, as well as pedestrianising Mount Street Gardens, would create an area for outdoor functions and parades.

“In summary, there is a need to improve the key areas of Mullingar. There is a huge opportunity to start developing and making the most of these areas,” he said.

A key part of this is to seek a Purple Flag for Mullingar, which like the Blue Flag for beaches and Green Flags for schools: it gives international accreditation to town centres which offer clean, safe and vibrant environments, including the highest quality in shopping, dining, pubs and entertainment.

“A Purple Flag is saying a certain level of safety, particularly between the hours of 5pm and 5am, has been reached within a town,” said Mr Hogan, who added that the council had arranged for Jim Bourke to give a presentation in September on this.

Sinn Féin’s Cllr Una D’Arcy welcomed the plan, particularly from the point of view of arriving by train to Mullingar.

“All you can see is Tarmac,” she said. “Decisions made now will cement the town culture for the future, especially for the businesses, they need to see constant revitalisation of the town centre.”

Andrew Duncan (FG) picked up on the point of the railway station, saying for anyone arriving in Mullingar, there was no signage once you got off the train. He also said that while Westport was a worthy example, Killarney was the best example of a town catering for the pedestrian, he thought.

Fianna Fáil’s Cllr Aidan Davitt welcomed the semi-pedestrianisation of Mount Street but said a traffic survey of the town was urgently needed.

“It’s long overdue. The amount of traffic trying to exit the town is just constant from the roundabout on Dominick Street to the Green Bridge.”

His party colleague, the municipal mayor Ken Glynn said that as an outgoing member of the board of directors of Mullingar Arts Centre, he hoped they would be consulted when pedestrianising part of Mount Street as they use it as a loading bay for theatre sets.

In agreement was Cllr Peter Burke (FG), who said it was particularly important that the public have their say, while Labour’s Cllr Mick Dollard complained that there was nothing in the plan for the visual arts.

“The Atrium is being used but really we need a space around County Buildings and the arts centre for visual arts,” he said.

He also queried the cost of plan design by Brady Shipman Martin, saying he thought they had enough educated personnel within the council who could do the job, without having to go around spending money by outsourcing the drawings.

Mr Hogan said that most of this would be funded by paid parking and they would also seek government funding, and following public consultation on the plans, he would return to the council with costings and a timeline.