Mullingar will lose its town council as cutbacks hit home

The face of local government in Westmeath is to alter dramatically following the local government reform measures announced in Dáil Éireann yesterday (Tuesday)."It looks like central government is going to control everything," commented the president of Mullingar Chamber of Commerce, Pat Whelan, a former member of Mullingar Town Council.It is likely the number of seats on the county council reduced by two from the present 23 to 21.The five existing local electoral areas - Mullingar east, Mullingar west, Coole, Kilbeggan and Athlone - are to go, and the county is to be divided into three new local electoral areas, with a representation of seven county councillors apiece.The new measures are to be in place by the time of the next local elections, due in just over a year and a half.Cllr Peter Burke says as he understands it, the geographic make-up of the three new local electoral areas in Westmeath will - as in other areas of the country - be decided by a commission, who will decide on the basis of population levels to ensure the fairest level of representation."Politicians' workloads will increase," he predicts, pointing out that while there are some members sitting on both the county council and Mullingar Town Council, all work shared by town and county councillors will now have to be handled by county councillors alone - and there will be fewer of them.However, he added, reform was what the public had wanted: "The public are looking for a reduction in public expenditure and one of the areas they want to see reduced is on the political side, and there are too many politicians."But the second thing is Mullingar is losing a layer of representation."Cllr Aidan Davitt agrees that there had been a desire among the public for local government reform."I suppose it had to be reformed: you have to look at the numbers and see how many people are in the area."But if you look at the history of it - it goes back a long way, and to get rid of the town council seems a bit strong."He believes it will be missed, pointing out that it will reduce the opportunity to raise issues of concern, such as potholes, broken street lights and so on, that were brought to the council's attention by town council members."It means a certain loss of feedback. When you think of it, the Mullingar Area Committee meets only every two months, and the county council only every month, so people locally, on the street, are going to suffer. There was a lot of good work done on it," he says. Pat Whelan points out that local government reform had been spoken about for years."It's been a long time coming but from what I heard this morning and without reading the full report, it looks like central government is going to control everything."It's more a case of centralised local government reform." Mr Whelan said that while he was a member of Mullingar Town Council, it had a budget of around €120,000, and very few powers, but it did provide a forum in which subjects could be discussed."But it's a pity to see all the powers going back to central government. It seems to be a cost cutting exercise - but that is what people want at the moment."He felt it might have been useful to have ended the practice of allowing councillors to sit on both county councils and town councils, but overall, he welcomed the cut in the number of councillors.