Trader's fury over lack of public meetings ahead

One Mullingar trader has expressed his sheer amazement at the lack of contact between Westmeath County Council and Mullingar traders ahead of trial watermains replacement works this month.The site investigation alone is expected to take between six and eight weeks, before the actual watermains replacement next Spring.Work locations will take place across a 110 sites in Mullingar town and this week Des Walsh has slated the Council for not having consulted the business people and residents of Mullingar, saying these works could essentially harm business and shut down the town to traffic."According to a previous Westmeath Examiner report, the Council said they would hold public consultation meetings, but I've learned that they will only hold them ahead of the actual watermains replacement next year and not before the site investigations which start this week.This is ludicrous considering I have also learned that it will take something like three days to investigate mains between Mount Street and Jail Hill, there will be traffic chaos," commented Mr. Walsh this week."It sounds like they will be digging up whole roads and this will essentially shut the town down to traffic, and we need the town open for business especially in times like these," Des continued."I want to know what streets will be affected by the site investigations, when they will be affected and how long it will take to carry out these investigations but I cannot get this information from the Council," he exclaimedAccording to Des, Westmeath County Council should have held public meetings long before the site investigations which are due to start this week, in order to consult businesses and come up with an overall plan as to how to dampen the impact of the investigations."I'd like to get the message across that Mullingar will be open for business, and that is the message the Council should be spreading, why else do we the rates we do?" he asked.According to David Sharry of Water Services in Westmeath County Council, the replacement of the watermains within Mullingar Town is still at design stage and the information from the site investigation will be used to finalise the design.It is expected that it will take between five and six months to complete the watermains replacement next Spring.The new watermains will see be a reduction in leakage within the town as UFW (Unaccounted for water) is expected to reduce by 10 to 15 percent.The old watermains within the town will be replaced by High Performance Poly Polyethylene Pipe with a life expectancy of 60 plus years.