Municipal District news: planting planned for Ardmore Road

Residents of the Ardmore Road are anxious to see trees and hedgerow that have been removed replaced, Cllr Hazel Smyth told officials at the December meeting of the Municipal District of Mullingar Kinnegad.

Cllr Smyth said the residents are concerned and saddened at the removal of such quantities of trees and hedgerow. She also felt it was contrary to the local authority’s aims in terms of reduction of emissions and planting more trees.

“Based on what I’m hearing from local people, they’re not happy about it, and I think there needs to be a major push towards planting native hedging, planting trees, appropriate trees, to replace what was removed,” she stated. She said the removal of the trees and hedging had removed a lot of the natural beauty of the area and had an impact on biodiversity.

The official written response to Cllr Smyth stated that pollinator planting has been completed on Phase 1 of the Ardmore Road works. Additional planting will be carried out as part of phase 2.

Solar panels

The installation of solar panels at the County Buildings in Mullingar has now taken place, Cllr Hazel Smyth was informed when she sought an update on the subject at the same meeting. Director of services, Deirdre Reilly, said the panels had been installed over the previous two weeks, and the system would have to be commissioned prior to operation.

“What we need to do is turn off the power in the building to turn on the solar panels. So that just is going to take a bit of working out,” she explained. “Obviously, turning ESB off here is a big question, and it’ll probably be done over the Christmas period, I imagine, when the offices are closed.”

Sports stars

A vote of congratulations was passed at the December meeting to 15-year-old boxer John Donoghue, gold medal winner at the World Junior Championships in Armenia. The vote was proposed by Cllr Andrew Duncan, who said John was Westmeath’s first world champion boxer.

“He is a talented young fellow who has done himself and his family proud. I think we should honour him. It’s not often we can say we have a world champion,” Cllr Duncan said.

“He went out and did the unthinkable by stopping [a] Russian in the first round, beating the world champion and then beating the favourite in his home country. It’s rare that something happens like that,” he said, as he proposed an address of recognition.

Cllr Ken Glynn complimented John and said he had never seen anything like the lines of people who applauded him on his return to his school.

Cllr Emily Wallace added her voice to the congratulations, and proposed congratulations also to Cormac Dalton, who came eighth at the 2023 European Cross Country Championships in Brussels. She said that placing was the second highest achievement of any Irish competitor since John Treacy, and said praise was due too to local coach, Joe Ryan.

Praise for John Donoghue came also from Cllrs Bill Collentine, Hazel Smyth, Mick Dollard and Denis Leonard and from mayor, Cllr John Shaw, who described his achievement as “wonderful”.

Protests

Members of the Municipal District have expressed misgivings over the use of the Market Square in Mullingar for protest gatherings without permission. The subject was raised for discussion by Cllr Mick Dollard – although neither he nor any other speaker specifically named the protest group to which their objections referred.

Cllr Dollard brought up the issue under “any other business”, stating that he wanted the executive to look at the use of Market Square. “We have a policy in place there and we need to update it because it has come to my notice now that in the recent past, one particular group has been using that particular square for a protest,” he said.

Cllr Dollard said the local authority is the custodian, on behalf of the people of Mullingar, of the Market Square, and it was appropriate, therefore, that the district had a policy in place governing its usage.

“This is an issue that was raised a number of years ago and there is a policy, but we need to update the policy and ensure the gardaí are au fait with that policy so they can take the appropriate action where it’s deemed necessary.”

Cllr Bill Collentine supported Cllr Dollard, saying groups should not be able to hold events there without having insurance in place.

The executive said that in general, most groups using the square would look for permission, and the minimum criteria was that they should have public liability insurance.