Council counts cost of pandemic

The underuse of car parks, libraries and leisure facilities due to the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in a loss of income to Westmeath County Council of over €1.5m.

Members of the council got details of the extent of the hit at their January monthly meeting, held last week, as their director of finance, Jimmy Dalton gave a presentation on council finances.

Car parking income was down €739,281 last year; income from leisure facilities was down €662,474 and the hit from the cut to activity in the arts came to €88,658.

Litter management income was down €9,010 and there was a drop in income of €24,082 from the operation of the arts programme.

The total drop from the five sectors combined came to €1,523,504.

On the plus side, there was €154,248 more received in rental income from housing stock; there was a surplus of €43,069 in planning fee income, and an additional €3,931 received in NPPR (non-principal private residence) income.

Mr Dalton indicated that he was optimistic that the shortfall would be made good by government in the coming weeks.

On the subject of rates, Mr Dalton indicated that the council had been making good progress in collecting rates prior to the pandemic, and he welcomed the fact that the government had paid the cost to the council of the loss of income that resulted from the rates waiver.