Adult education centre and library on council's wishlist

 

Westmeath County Council wants to open a training centre and library at the former primary school in Kinnegad, and to see a town park and a community centre provided in the town.

Also on the wish list is the revamp of the town hall and The Square in Castlepollard.
All works are contingent, however, on the council’s bid for grant aid of €5.3m for Kinnegad and €3.5m for Castlepollard, members of the council’s Housing, Corporate, Community and Culture Strategic Policy Committee (SPC) learnt at their quarterly meeting, held on Monday.
A decision on the application for aid from the Urban and Rural Regeneration and Development Fund is due in January or February of next year.
Setting out the detail of the ideas in place for Kinnegad, Director of Services Dave Hogan said that the council is working closely with the Longford/Westmeath Education and Training Board (LWETB), with a view to having an adult training centre established at the redbrick Victorian schoolhouse on the town’s main street.
“We’re working in partnership with the ETB to deliver that project,” he said before going on to reveal that there is also a plan to provide a community centre and “a small town park”.
“There’s a need for civic and community facilities,” he said.
“The third stage then is to create employment opportunities,” Mr Hogan continued, pointing out that at present, a lot of people living in Kinnegad leave the town daily to go to work elsewhere.
“We want to create employment opportunities,” he stated, listing start-up units as being among the proposals being considered.
Also planned is enhancement works for the street around the Galway Road junction.
Mr Hogan said that Kinnegad shares, with Moate, third place on the list of Westmeath towns by size.
“What we’re hoping for is approval to go on to design and we will start moving on from there,” he stated.
 

Castlepollard

For Castlepollard, the plan is to transform the market house on the fairgreen into a community centre and to develop and enhance the square itself, Mr Hogan told the meeting, adding that it was an “ambitious” plan.
A factor to take on board was that in both Castlepollard and Kinnegad, the projects involved listed buildings. However, there would be public consultation as part of the process.
 

Towns

Mr Hogan confirmed that, as revealed in The Westmeath Examiner two weeks ago, under the urban element of the Scheme, Westmeath County Council has received approval for its application for funding for the development of the “prime” town centre site of Blackhall and for regeneration for the “Canal Quarter” between Cusack Park and Millie Walsh’s.
Approval for three Athlone projects has also been received.
 

 School

Committee member Des Sheridan wondered if the County Council had any role to play in the question of whether Kinnegad should have a second level school, but the council’s response was that this was a matter for the Department of Education.