Parking and derelict buildings raised at Kinnegad Town Team walkability event

Car parking, derelict buildings and better road markings, were among the issues raised at Kinnegad Town Team’s Walkability event, on a wet Wednesday, April 16.

Town Teams have been formed around Westmeath as part of a wider government-led initiative called Town Centre First. The team surveyed much of the town centre before returning to Scanlon’s Bar to discuss their findings.

Shane Kelly, a local Kinnegad resident, said: “My observation from today was that we need to change the approach angle of a lot of car parking spaces to make it easier for people to move in and out.

“We also need to make disabled bay parking more visible, along with repainting lines in the town at pedestrian crossings.

“Another thing we noted was the aesthetics in the town. We need to make sure that the derelict buildings we have are made a bit more aesthetically pleasing, through painting the outside.”

Jason McCormack, regeneration officer at Westmeath County Council, said: “The weather wasn’t quite as good as we would have liked. It’s wet and cold. Participants found it a tougher day and a tougher experience, but often that is a good thing as it shows you what it is really like to walk around in these conditions.

"The water will lodge on the paths, it will show you the slippy areas, it will show you where your feet are going to get wet and we comment on all of that and put it into our reports.”