Plan will mean 80pc will be within 400m of bus route

Mullingar Transport Plan

The proposals contained in the new Mullingar Transport Plan will mean that more than 22,000 residents would reside within a 20-minute walk of key employers within Mullingar and 20,000 residents would be located within 15 minutes of schools and so would be able to avail of the walking or cycling, Active Travel networks.

Andrew Archer of the transport consultancy firm Systra, which has drawn up the plan, told members of the Mullingar Kinnegad Municipal District that with the rollout of the town bus service and an improvement between land use and transport, 80% of the town’s future population will live within 400 metres of a bus service; and 12,000 residents will be within 200 meters of a cycle link. He also pointed out that the changes would bring benefits in terms of climate emissions.

Cllr Denis Leonard, pointing out that 40 percent of emissions come from transport, asked what was the extent of benefit the plan was likely to bring and also recommended provision of park and ride facilities for residents from outlying areas, such as Castlepollard, Killucan, Delvin and Kinnegad.

A query from Cllr Mick Dollard was on whether an analysis had been carried out on the level of traffic through Mullingar that doesn’t actually stop and that therefore brings no economic benefit to the town.

Cllr Dollard estimated that Mullingar needs at least 1,500 extra houses to cope with present demand and he wondered how that would affect the workings of the plan. He also wondered if the plan would be effective in changing the mindsets of people who at present don’t want to get out of their cars and start walking.

‘Delusional’

Cllr Andrew Duncan wondered about the practicalities of expecting people to walk and cycle in a country where 20 out of every 30 days are wet. He noted that the plan intended that there should be no parking on Dominick Street or Castle Street and that Mary Street should become a one-way street, and expressed concern for the capacity of the town to provide the services it currently provides for the smaller rural satellite towns and villages.

“The town centre is the core of any town. You must protect the town core at all costs,” he said, stating that one had only to look at England to see the effect of having shopping centres on the outskirts of towns leading to boarded-up town centres all over the place.

He remarked that the reality was that the authorities are in a war against cars, but at the same time, promoting the use of electric vehicles when the fact was that boat had sailed and the public don’t want them. He continued, however, that it was delusional to think people were going to make a switch over to walking or using bicycles.

Killucan

Cllr Aoife Davitt expressed some doubt about the realistic prospect of being able to keep cars out of town since there can be many good reasons people have to get close to their destinations. She also felt that if the plan was to make sense, it would require actions such as the reopening of Killucan railway station to enable people to commute from that area to Dublin without having to go to Mullingar.

Cllr Davitt also wondered about the wisdom of making part of the town one-way, especially given the amount of people needing to drop children to school in that area. She said that would not solve the traffic problem, merely move it somewhere else.

Cllr Alfie Devine said statistics in the document revealed that 98% of people coming to work in Mullingar arrive by car and therefore it suggested to him that what would make more sense was to get a regular bus service running at the times that suited working people and not just 10 o’clock in the mornings and home at 2 o’clock in the day. He said that in drawing up the plan, the team should have given more consideration to what’s happening in the outlying towns and villages all over the county.

A welcome for the proposals came from Cllr Bill Collentine, who said that since so many workers depart Mullingar daily for jobs in Dublin, it was crucial that a second rail line be provided so that more trains could run. He also felt it was important to re-establish a rail link to Athlone and Galway for young people attending college.

Disabled parking spaces

Cllr Julie McCourt was concerned about access to the town centre and to parking facilities for people who are affected by disability, a concern shared by Cllr David Jones, who also asked about the provision of age-friendly parking facilities in Mullingar, while Cllr Niall Gaffney shared the concerns of Cllrs Devine and Leonard on the impact of the changes on residents from other towns in the area coming into Mullingar.

He said if park and ride facilities were to be provided, it was essential that there was a reliable and regular shuttle bus taking people from those locations into the town or the mobility hub at the station.

Summing up, the mayor, Cllr Ken Glynn, said he had many reservations about the proposal. “When I read this, it’s pretty clear the green agenda is behind this. It’s very clear it’s anti-car,” he said, going on to point out that a contradiction was the fact that the document recommended that priority be given for the installation of further electric vehicle charging points.

Cllr Glynn said it was crucial to protect the town centre and that he was concerned that the plan could well do “significant damage” to the vibrancy of the town core.

He also predicted that residents might not be happy with opening up their estates to neighbouring locations in the interests of permeability, because in the past some such access points had to be closed after complaints of antisocial behaviour.

Pat Nally, senior executive engineer with the council’s Active Travel team, assured members that the proposals in the transport plan contradicted nothing that members of the council have already adopted in the past in documents such as the current county development plan. He explained that the intention is that this should become a chapter in the local area plan for Mullingar. It was because the issue was so important that it was done separately to the local area plan, he said.

Responses

Responding to the points made, Mr Archer said the team believed a park-and-ride facility would not be financially viable, but he pointed out that when the new bus service is up and running, buses are to run at 15-minute intervals anyway, which might prove the answer to the problem.

On the subject of improved bus services from other towns around Westmeath to Mullingar, Mr Archer said that might be something that could be discussed with the National Transport Authority.

He said the approach was not anti-car and said the intention is not to reduce the number of parking spaces in town. He said the intention was, however, to provide additional capacity for walking and cycling and to provide people with the choice to use those options.

He agreed too that it might be worth looking at improved levels of age-friendly parking facilities.