Plea for pedestrian crossing at The Downs

A plea to have a pedestrian crossing provided at The Downs was made by Cllr Aoife Davitt at the January meeting of the Municipal District of Mullingar Kinnegad. The reason it is needed, Cllr Davitt told the meeting, is to make it safer for those crossing the road to the school, sports pitch, after-school facility and canal walk.

The official written response to her request stated that a footpath was recently provided adjacent to that location under the CIS (Community Improvement Scheme) scheme. For a pedestrian crossing, the location would have to meet the need, following which the potential for CIS funding could be examined.

Cllr Davitt said that there has recently been “major funding” allocated for a playground at The Downs, which was likely to bring increased numbers of families, cyclists and pedestrians to the facility.

“I just cannot get my head around why the community has to pay for this scheme,” she said, adding that she was not sure why the council is so against a pedestrian crossing there given the number of houses in the area, and also the extent of use of the GAA pitch there – “and there are so many other ways that clubhouse has been used by the community”.

Cllr Davitt said that area is being transformed into a village – but the council needed to install the infrastructure to support that: “We have to put in the mechanisms for people to be able to move around their ‘village’ – because that’s really what it is at this point, or what it’s becoming.”

She continued: “I ask that we look at some other funding mechanism.”

Cllr Denis Leonard supported Cllr Davitt’s motion: “It is one of the largest, most spread-out, densely populated rural areas in this country. And it is very quickly becoming a village.”

Cllr Leonard said the area was lucky to have one of the finest community facilities in Westmeath, and a growing school, and he felt the least the council could do was to look at the amount of money a pedestrian crossing would cost relative to the value to that community.

The mayor, Cllr Hazel Smyth, said she would support the call, but would like if the solution could form part of an Active Travel approach for the area.

Director of Services, David Jones, agreed that if the CIS scheme could not be pursued to fund the crossing, it might be possible to look at another mechanism.