Repurposing of older buildings among issues raised at Castlepollard Walkability event

Repurposing of older buildings, parking, information for people with disabilities and incomplete footpaths were on the agenda, as Castlepollard Town Team completed their Walkability event on Wednesday May 21.

Walkability events are held by town teams across Westmeath as part of the government's Town Centre First Policy, which encourages rural towns to tackle vacancy, and develop, and support the local economy.

The team examined the streets of Castlepollard on a sunny Wednesday morning and inspected several areas of the town, including some of the housing estates.

They took a detailed look at the main areas of the town centre, at footpaths and some disused buildings, and came up with ideas on what can be done.

Cliff Gurren, resident, and PRO for the Castlepollard Town Team, said: “The idea behind today is to gather information and statistics about what affects people in Castlepollard in their day-to-day life.

“We will use the information to hopefully bring together a plan that will help future infrastructure and bring more facilities to the town and the surrounding area.

“These sorts of events are important because we can use this information to try to convince the council to give people what they want and need in their towns.

“We are grateful to Westmeath County Council, as they have been a phenomenon in interacting with locals and the community groups while trying to help us in every way so that we can come together and make the town a better place for us all to live.”

Jason McCormack of Westmeath County Council, added: “These walkability days are important, when we are on them, we do things slowly and we stop, think and listen.

“We try to make people aware of the issues that those who are not generally mobile have when moving around our public spaces, and we compile reports with comments from everybody involved on the day to use them in studies so that we can try to improve the public spaces in their town.”