Age-friendly car parking sought for Mullingar

Cllr Emily Wallace has asked that the council install Age-Friendly car parking spaces in Mullingar. The response, at the April meeting of the Municipal District of Mullingar Kinnegad, was that under the Community and the Transportation sections of Westmeath County Council, an Age-Friendly policy document is being prepared for presentation to the Planning and Transport SPC on the potential development and provision of such spaces across the county. “We hope to present the draft policy proposal for consideration for adoption at their Q2 meeting.”

Cllr Wallace welcomed the reply, stating she had brought the issue up in the past but her suggestion was knocked on the head, so she was glad to see it was now under consideration.

“But we’re very slow in taking this up,” she said.

“Our age strategy has been in place since 2013; our older people are very valuable. They are consumers within our towns and villages. And it’s to make it easy for them,” she said, saying it would give them the opportunity to access services and businesses, without being under pressure to walk long distances.

“None of us are getting any younger, so we need to future-proof our towns for all of our citizens,” she said, asking for an idea of when age-friendly spaces will be rolled out and how many there will be in the various towns within the district.

Director of services David Jones said those decisions will be made once the policy has been finalised and adopted. At that point, it will be possible to see how best to implement the policy, he explained.