Staged payments on property grants sought

Incremental payments of the Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant would enable many more to avail of them, Cllr Paul Hogan has suggested.

At the April monthly meeting of Westmeath County Council, he stated that 52 applicants are expected to avail of the grants this year, which is – “one a week”.

A deterrent is the fact that they have to spend €50,000 or €70,000 before they are paid, while, if it was a mortgage, they would get a portion of it along the way, he pointed out.

So far this year, the council have paid out €775,000 to 13 applicants under the scheme.

They expect to pay out another €2m plus to 39 applicants by the end of the year.

At the same meeting, Cllr Frankie Keena described as unacceptable the 125 vacant units in Athlone town.

Stating that 4.1m people visited the town centre last year, he said property owners should be given incentives to put such buildings back into use, maybe tiered rates and consultative support to identify niche businesses, to attract people out of the shopping centres, to the main thoroughfares, he said.

The meeting was told that the uptake on previous incentives was small, but the council would not be averse to looking at it again.

Ambrose Clarke, senior executive, said he has met the Chamber of Commerce and local business owners on Athlone’s main street.

They outlined their concerns and the council would see if they can do anything to allay them, Mr Clarke said.

“It was a very open meeting and great to get that feedback, which we will use in our thought process moving forward,” he added.