Concerns raised after house near Old Rail Trail burgled

A home along the Old Rail Trail at Ballinea was burgled by someone who is believed to have come from the trail to do so, a local municipal district councillor has claimed.

“There was a break-in at a house in the evening time, around 4.30 or 5pm, when someone came off the Rail Trail and entered the property of a resident,” Cllr Aoife Davitt told colleagues and officials at the February meeting of the Municipal District of Mullingar Kinnegad.

Alarmingly, there was one person in the house at the time, a young student.

“Obviously, it was a very worrying incident,” said Cllr Davitt, adding that there were “multiple” other instances of people coming off the trail and into people's gardens.

The Fianna Fáil woman was speaking on her motion calling to have palisade boundary fencing erected for residents of properties on the Old Rail Trail at Ballinea.

To Cllr Davitt’s request for boundary fencing, the written reply from the executive stated that there is fencing and hedging in place at that location, and that the district has no plan to replace the existing boundary.

Cllr Davitt was disappointed at the response, saying there are points along the trail from which it is possible to walk straight off the Rail Trail and into people's gardens. While there is some copper beech hedging, it is not adequate.

Director of services, Deirdre Reilly, responded that it was not really possible for the council to engineer against opportunist burglars.

Cllr Davitt was not satisfied with this standpoint, saying that users of the rail trail can in some cases see right in to the back of residents’ homes: “I think the least you could do is go out, speak to them, put in a different type of hedging,” she stated.

“I don't think it will be feasible to erect fencing along [there] and set precedents for other properties along the rail trail there,” Ms Reilly said, adding that the council has, in her opinion, adequate fencing there and that the copper beech will mature over time.