Coralstown resident says she will withhold car tax as protest

A resident of Coralstown who describes herself as a law abiding citizen is withholding her car tax for this year in protest at what she says is a lack of action by the county council.

Veronica Lynam of Hightown, Coralstown is annoyed with how lorries using the road she lives on have left it in a substandard condition.

Ms Lynam said: “The county council gave permission for 25,000 tonnes of construction rubble to be delivered over a five-year period to a farm near me. Since September 1, the lorries have been coming and coming and coming – we’ve stopped counting!

“Although it is a rural area, it is already a busy road with lots of houses and dangerous bends, especially near my house.

“Our road is in bits, grass verges have all but disappeared. Our road is not ours any more – it’s a danger zone.

“The council have simply logged our complaints and the lorries keep coming.

“Yes I know, there was a site notice to inform us of this planning application. We didn’t see it. It was last year in May when we were in the middle of lockdown. If we were out, we were going in the opposite direction towards the shops in Mullingar.

“It’s not right for the county council to grant permission without any consideration for the community affected. After three and a half months, we now have a file number but they don’t yet appear to be on the case.

“I’m not hopeful. So that’s why I’m not paying my car tax. Shame on the county council! Solve this problem and I’ll gladly pay my car tax. This is the only protest I can think of.

“A final note, a message to the chief executive of the Westmeath County Council: ‘Put your house in order, please put planning and enforcement at the top of your agenda. The buck stops with you.’.”

Ms Lynam has sought assistance from a number of elected representatives. Cllr Hazel Smyth, sent a statement to the Westmeath Examiner on the matter. “As chair of the Planning and Transport SPC and member of the Road Safety Committee, I raised the need for urgent action to be taken by Westmeath County Council with respect to planning permission granted to a landfill for soil and stone in Coralstown.

“The road leading to the site is being left in a particularly shoddy, mucky state for local residents.”

She said all the truckloads travelling to and from the site are “causing serious concerns from a safety, noise and environmental standpoint and are disruptive for local residents”.

Cllr Smyth raised the matter at the recent Planning and Transport SPC following communications with Westmeath County Council about it, and she said the response she received was that the council would investigate it.

Cllr Denis Leonard and Minister of State Robert Troy also made representations to the council on the matter.

The most recent development, according to Ms Lynam, is that the council has placed traffic cones on the road verges near her house.