Council considers e-working centre for Mullingar

Westmeath County Council is considering the establishment of an e-working centre within its grounds at County Buildings, Mullingar. The proposal is aimed at implementing Irish government policy as expressed in Smarter Travel - A Sustainable Transport Future, which has set objectives for the provision of regional e-working centres to reduce work related travel.The proposed project involves providing modern office facilities for people living in the Mullingar area who currently travel to work in Dublin or other locations involving long travel distances. Recent figures show that some 4,500 workers who live in Westmeath travel a distance greater than 50km to work.The proposed e-working centre would provide these people with an opportunity to work closer to home, and using working space with communications and IT systems in an office environment in Mullingar.Customers of the proposed e-working centre would have access to the council's ancillary facilities, including existing car and bicycle parking, meeting rooms, canteen, and tele/video conferencing.Using the proposed e-working centre would result in many benefits for individuals including substantial time and cost savings. Important community benefits would also result in reduced traffic congestion, energy conservation, and reduced environmental emissions from transport.For employers, benefits would include increased productivity and flexibility of staff, retention of skilled staff, reduction in damaging impact to business from extreme weather, and savings from reduced need to provide office and parking accommodation.If you are interested, visit westmeathcoco.ie, where further details on the proposal are outlined. There is also a questionnaire for interested parties to complete online or download and submit by post to the Transportation Section, Westmeath County Council County Buildings, Mullingar, County Westmeath before December 14.This project is supported by the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport under the Active Travel Towns Programme.