Lack of child-friendly pool lashed by councillor

Parents with toddlers are having to bring their children as far away as Tullamore because of the lack of child-friendly facilities in Mullingar, a local councillor has complained.

"There is no proper shallow pool that's separated in a safe way from the main swimming pool for toddlers. And it's a very valuable skill, learning how to swim. And it's really important that toddlers can build that confidence from the very outset," Cllr Hazel Smyth told officials at the March meeting of the Municipal District of Mullingar Kinnegad.

Cllr Smyth was disappointed at the official response to her request that a child-friendly shallow zone be provided at Mullingar public swimming pool. It stated: "The shallow end of the pool is one meter deep. However, the pool does cater for various groups and ages and provides sessions for parent and toddler groups, children’s lessons and schools lessons."

Cllr Smyth gave vent both to frustration over the lack of progress on the Robinstown complex, and the apparent failure of Mullingar pool to avail of a recent funding opportunity.

"There was recently €706,000 given to swimming pools across Ireland, but for some reason Mullingar didn't avail of that funding," she said, asking why this was the case.

"We have been told for years that there is a new sports development coming to Robinson, which is meant to have some type of state of the art swimming pool," she continued, going on to lament the fact that she has seen no updates on that recently, despite the funding that was seemingly provided for that use some some years ago and that was being set aside for it.

"So I think the response is disappointing," she said.

"I think that we should be trying to do more to facilitate people with small children," she said.

"It is disappointing that in other places nearby, they do have this facility and yet here in Mullingar we don't."

Cllr John Shaw agreed: "As someone who regularly uses the pool in Mullingar – and it’s a pool that is really well run by our staff here and it has been a great facility for years, but obviously it is lacking in terms of a lot of the basic facilities that are popular at the moment," he said, confirming that many people do head to Trim or Tullamore.

He said the only real solution was going to be the opening of the Robinstown complex.

Support came also from Mayor Aoife Davitt, who was also keen to see progress on the Robinstown project.

"We have been saving; the groundwork has been done by the council and we have been forward thinking," she said before stating that that project needs "a push".

Responding, director of services David Jones said that the options at the present pool are limited but that he would agree with the need to push the Robinstown project.

The application for Robinstown is currently, he explained, with the department for consideration under the Large Scale Sports Infrastructure scheme, and the executive has been pushing for a decision. He confirmed that funding has been put aside by the council so it is ready to meet the matched funding requirement.