‘If plan is to keep traffic out, tell us’

Westmeath County Council need to be upfront with the public that the prime objective of their traffic management strategy for Mullingar is “drive traffic out of the town”, says the outgoing president of the chamber of commerce.

John Geoghegan said that while many locals say the smart traffic light system introduced in 2020 has exacerbated traffic problems, from the council perspective, it has been a success.

“Technically, they are right, because their strategy is to drive traffic out of town and get cars on to the ring roads and link roads and into the car parks on the edge of town – to decarbonise the centre. Over the next 10 or 15 years the European strategy for all town centres is pedestrianisation and carbon free zones.”

Mr Geoghegan, who stepped down as president of Mullingar Chamber last week after two and a half years in the role, sat on a traffic sub-committee. “It was difficult because there was no recognition initially [from the council] that there was a problem. Over time, there was a muted recognition.”

He says that “without a shadow of a doubt”, the council need to be more upfront with the public about traffic strategy– and smart traffic system needs to “tweaked”.

It is just one of the changes he would like to see implemented to improve traffic flow in the town. “The technology we paid for [smart traffic light system] needs to be checked. It’s not working properly and never has.

“When you stop at the traffic lights [Market Square], you can see there is no one coming up Mount Street but the light is green. Surely it shouldn’t be green if there is traffic waiting at another junction. Another thing is, they got rid of every filter lane in town apart from at Pearse Street coming into town. They got rid of the one in Dominic Street, one in Castle Street. That has choked the town. That is ridiculous.

“Take the one that was on Dominic Street for going left up Mary Street and then down Bishopsgate Street – it is an unlocking route from the town centre. It shouldn’t have been removed.

“The councillors signed off on that. They should have been talked through what was being done. Nobody seemed to know what was being done.

“They [the councillors] didn’t hold the executive to account. The executive railroaded in this system and then it was really hard on the councillors.”

During his time as chamber president, Mr Geoghegan said the council and chamber worked well on a number of projects, including the Mullingar Voucher scheme. He also praised the local authority for its contribution to the successful running of the Fleadh Cheoil.

Tourism

He said the local authority could do more to develop tourism amenities under their control, such as Belvedere House. “We [the chamber] would be really ambitious for Belvedere. We think that it is a beautiful resource in a phenomenal location, just off a national route.

“Belvedere should have plenty of amenities, like kayaking on the lake, open air concert events. I can’t see a limit to what Belvedere could achieve.

“Every year they tick a box by putting in the Life Festival. The place is closed for a week or two in the middle of the summer for a festival that hardly anyone from Mullingar goes to. It doesn’t tick the box culturally. Belvedere is losing money every year. How can we stand over that?

“We would strongly encourage a review of Belvedere in the immediate term. We think it is a massive opportunity. It is just a beautiful place to go to and could do so much better.

“In Mullingar, we have one of the best markets in the country with huge accessibility. We have two million people within a 45-minute drive, and Belvedere is losing money. It doesn’t make sense. It speaks volumes to me of an executional issue at operations from the council. It is not acceptable. It is too nice an amenity in too good a town.

“If you look at the lakes, there has been no investment over the last 30 years. If you drive to Lough Ennell, Lough Derravaragh, at all the public access points, they have poor quality amenities. It is terrible. A lot of that has to do with fears about anti-social behaviour, but you can’t write everything off due to anti-social behaviour.”

While acknowledging that “some good things are happening”, such the new walkway at Lough Ennell, Mr Geoghegan says that more needs to be done to make the lakes more accessible. “I found that frustrating, the tourism stuff. It’s so hard to get things done.”