Canal stretch to remain unlit for now

A plea that lighting be installed on the Royal Canal between the Dublin Bridge and Piper's Court, Millmount Road, was turned down for now by officials at the March meeting of the Municipal District of Mullingar Kinnegad.

In response to Cllr Mick Dollard, who made the plea, the written response was that the council is not in a position to extend public lighting as proposed at present, due to the requirement to invest in the existing infrastructure, including the provision of LED energy-saving lanterns and repairs to the wiring system.

"When this work has been completed, extensions to the network can be considered. In the meantime, new public lights are installed as part of various schemes under CLÁR, Town and Village Renewal and Outdoor Recreation," it concluded.

Cllr Dollard accepted the need to invest in LED lights and wondered if funding could be sourced under the Active Travel programme.

"A lot of people use it at nighttime, and I’m just a little bit concerned for the safety of people out walking," he said.

Support came from Mayor Aoife Davitt who said the canal was "a fantastic facility" even for people going to or coming from school, and she too believed some lighting was warranted.

Cllr Hazel Smyth also agreed: "I do think that we should be trying to look for whatever funding might be available to support lighting like this in our built-up areas such as this and around our town centre," she stated.

Support came too from Cllr Bill Collentine: "I think it's a very important to stretch of the canal; it's not that long. A lot of people use it from The Dublin Bridge down to the housing estates and it would leave it a lot safer," he said.

Director of services David Jones responded that Active Travel had been looked at as a potential source of funding, but it did not meet the criteria, as the stretch of canal in question is not a new piece of infrastructure.

However, he continued, the council would look at other potential funding streams.

District engineer Dr Paul McCool added that a number of years ago the council did get a design done and applied for money: "So we will we will try again," he said. "It's a very worthwhile project."