A second pedestrian crossing promised for the Dublin Road in Mullingar will have to wait until at least next year but could take another five years to complete, if the vague answer given to a councillor this week is taken at face value.
Cllr Mick Dollard had made a query to the council executive as to when the Dublin Road might see the second crossing promised for between Petitswood Manor and Westmeath Motors, for which planning permission was granted in February.
“It is proposed to include a pedestrian crossing as part of the junction design at the new [retail] development at Westmeath Motors,” he was told.
“This work will be carried out within the time period of the grant of permission.”
As was reported in this paper on April 2, the McIntyre family was granted permission to build a 1,256 sq m discount foodstore for the new, Cork-based chain BuyLo on the tobacco factory side of the Westmeath Motors campus and hoped to have it completed by the “middle of the summer”. The unfortunate gas leak on Monday signalled the beginning of this process.
Not unsurprisingly, the council has decided to hold back on the building of the second pedestrian crossing until this store is completed, and as monies for its completion have not been included in the budget for 2010, nor certified for 2011, the only definite answer the council could give Cllr Dollard was the classic, open-ended answer that it would be build within the “timeframe of the grant of [BuyLo] permission” - which expires in March 2015.
On a more positive note, the local area plans for the last two western villages in the county - Rathowen and Ballinalack - were presented to the Mullingar area councillors at the Monday meeting.
As part of the county development plan for the years 2008-2014, these plans will help in the orderly planning and development of the villages in the uncertain years ahead.
The proposed plans will go on public display in the villages and in the county buildings between June 21 and August 2, after which the council will accept observations and submissions from all interested parties before returning the revised plans to the council for formal adoption in the late autumn.
