Parking back at pre-Covid levels

Car parking levels in Mullingar and Athlone are back to pre-pandemic levels.

At the quarterly finance meeting of Westmeath County Council, acting director of finance Michael Hand told members that for the first six months of this year, car parking income of €867,944 has been received.

That is running at 50.4% of the budgeted amount, and he anticipates that it will increase further when the ongoing streetscape works in Athlone are complete.

The amount of car parking income collected in the first six months of 2023 came to €819,931.

The 2022 figure was €743,640 and for 2019, the pre-pandemic year, the income for the first six months amounted to €865,576.

Rain affects roads

Councillors learned that on May 31 of this year, the Department of Transport noticed that Ireland had endured a prolonged period of rainfall during the 2023-2024 winter season that had caused damage to the regional and local road network.

In recognition of that, additional funding of €696,000, an increase of 9.9%, has been allocated to Westmeath for restoration improvement works.