Collentine wants flowers on the Joe Dolan bridge

A plea to have flower basket displays installed on the Joe Dolan Bridge was aired at the June meeting of the Municipal District of Mullingar Kinnegad by Cllr Bill Collentine, chair of the Mullingar Tidy Towns committee.

The appeal did not, however, find favour with the district executive. “Mullingar Kinnegad District currently has 80 hanging baskets and 15 large pole mounted planters to plant and maintain in the Mullingar town centre,” the written response to Cllr Collentine began, going on to explain that this summer, flower display requires a watering programme during the summer months, seven days a week before 8am, with the associated servicing costs of overtime expenditure.

“Accordingly, there are no plans to install additional hanging baskets outside of the core town centre area.”

Cllr Collentine had been anxious to see the baskets erected in time for the fleadh, so the executive explained it intends to relocate the large planters from both Dominick and Market Square to Dominick Street and other approach roads to Mullingar during the fleadh in order to further enhance the aesthetics of the town.

Cllr Collentine was disappointed at the response: “I’m not happy at all with this,” he told officials, saying some option would have to be found and that the costs could not be that great.

“You need something on the bridge – it’s one of the longest bridges in the country,” he said.

Support came from Cllr Mick Dollard, who said it was an issue close to his heart and he wondered if there could be a “coming together” of Mullingar Tidy Towns and the Municipal District on the issue.

Stating that she supported the motion “to a certain extent”, Cllr Hazel Smyth wondered, in light of the response provided by the district, if they could as an alternative and as a sustainable option have art installations on the bridge.

Cllr Ken Glynn said he fully supported Cllr Collentine’s motion as the bridge is one of the entrance points in to Mullingar: “This year, as a one-off, given that Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann is back in Mullingar, maybe we could do something like this: I don’t think it’s a huge ask for one summer,” he said.

“We need to ‘sell’ the town. We sold it well last year but we need to sell it even better than that this year because it won’t be back with us next year.”

Cllr Emily Wallace was also in favour of the suggestion from Cllr Collentine and said it wasn’t a lot to ask for, although she pointed out that the bridge is open and flower baskets might dry out on it.

District engineer Pat Kavanagh said that for the fleadh, the executive would consider the request, and he agreed to meet Cllr Collentine on the bridge to consider the options.