Google’s Streetview shows Mullingar during roadworks
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One of the current Streetview images of Mullingar, taken in July of last year.Image 2 of 3
When the Google Streetview car passed by the Market Square last year, it was during the height of the enhancement works.Image 3 of 3
By contrast, this picture, taken in last week’s sunshine, shows how the street looks now that the enhancement works have been completed.Google is to be asked to send its Streetview cars back to Mullingar, as the current images of the town centre show a mishmash of traffic cones, barriers and broken-up pavements.
“These pictures are a mess: you might well say it looks like broken eggs when in fact what we have is an omelette,” said Deputy Robert Troy this week.
The Streetview shots currently on display were taken in July last year when the town enhancement works were under way, and there was traffic chaos along most of the main streets.
Deputy mayor Cllr Andrew Duncan said that the actual enhancement works had brought a great new appearance to Mullingar: “The town enhancement scheme lasted quite a while but we don’t want it lasting ‘forever’ on Google Street View,” he said.
“In actual fact, the streets look good; they look really well; the squares look great. But this is a bit like painting a house and taking a picture when the job is just half done. The town looks really well now: at the very least you would think they would come back and take a picture with the completed works.”
Deputy Troy said he intends contacting Google and asking that they take more up-to-date pictures of the town.
“It’s unfair because it gives no idea of what Mullingar is like, and the enhancement works have been very positive and have made huge improvements to the town. The Streetview images are not reflective of how the town looks now.”
Deputy Troy said the pictures taken in the Market Square area were particularly in need of replacing, as it is a focal point for visitors, especially because the Joe Dolan statue is located there.
He added that now more than ever, as the local economy attempts to effect a recovery, visitors checking out the town on Streetview needed to be able to view the widened pavements, which facilitate social distancing.
The chairman of the Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann committee, Joe Connaire, is also keen to see the images updated.
“We were going to have half a million people coming to visit Mullingar. We want to showcase the town in the best light possible,” he said.
A timeline feature on Google’s Streetview images shows when the current image was taken, and also lets users see previous images that were on display. The oldest Streetview images for the Market Square date from 2009. The timeline reveals that the first image used was taken in May 29; the next in October 2009 and it then took until September 2014 for that image to be updated.
Since then, it has featured photos taken in May 2017, July 2018, and then the current picture, dating from July 2019.