Ashe Road has path of most resistance for councillors

The reconfiguration of the Ashe Road in Mullingar is to be thrashed out by county council members and officials at a special in-committee meeting on Monday next after councillors expressed deep dissatisfaction with the redesign of the road.

At the March meeting of the Municipal District of Mullingar Kinnegad, standing orders were suspended on the proposal of the mayor, Cllr Ken Glynn, who said there are ongoing concerns over the new layout.

“I don’t know about other members but I’m still getting representations on a daily basis about this. It’s not good enough, I’m not happy,” said Cllr Glynn.

Director of services Deirdre Reilly told the members that the changes to the road were being made on foot of a condition applied to a grant of planning permission in that area. That was why the matter had not come before the Municipal District for decision.

However, she said, she wanted the councillors to hold an in-committee meeting as she was conscious that there is a need for a protocol governing communication on such issues.

She also wished to brief the councillors on any projects within the district that are in the pipeline but outside the Part 8 process, and to discuss possible solutions to the Ashe Road conundrum.

“As I said at the last meeting, it is not for me to make a decision here without speaking to the experts – and that’s from a legal and a technical perspective,” she said.

Ms Reilly went on to say that the work is being undertaken by private contractors, and they are doing what they were asked to do: “This is a private contractor who made a planning application to build the 500 houses on the Ashe Road, and as part of the planning condition, we conditioned that the road would be designed and constructed in a certain way. So he’s not contracted by Westmeath County Council [but is] a private contractor.”

During the discussion on the road alterations, Cllr Mick Dollard said he understood the ideal minimum width of a footpath was 1.8 metres and could be as wide as 2.5 metres, but he felt the of the new footpath on the Ashe Road, was excessive, especially given that the road comes off a larger busy road.

“The problem I have is that this footpath is not going to be used just by pedestrians, it’s also going to be used by cyclists and it’s going to be used by individuals on motor and electric scooters,” he stated, adding that in his view, the safety of the most vulnerable road users – pedestrians – will be greatly diminished.

“There’s no reason why this footpath can’t be greatly reduced, and I have to say that it’s the pedestrians that we have to concern ourselves with,” he said.

Their concerns were shared by Cllr Aoife Davitt, who was in no doubt but that the footpath width needed to be scaled back.

Also in agreement was Cllr Denis Leonard, who said the council should re-check the ideal width for footpaths, and consider having a demarcation line that separated cyclists and scooter users from pedestrians.

“The problem is we’re making some of these footpaths so wide that it’s impossible for vehicles to take the turn appropriately and they end up cutting across the area in question, or it’s too wide for two to pass and the mirrors get hit and things like that,” he said.

Cllr Bill Collentine said he is not impressed with what has been done at the Ashe Road, and he felt greater heed should have been paid to the concerns of residents of the area. Reservations were also expressed by Cllr Julie McCourt, while Cllr David Jones said if there were concerns, the executive should heed them. Cllr Alfie Devine pressed to have a check done on the recommended standards for road and footpath widths.