‘Hanging wires’ greeting visitors to Mullingar

“Hanging wires and dirty poles” greet visitors to Mullingar via Austin Friars Street, a councillor complained at the Municipal District of Mullingar Kinnegad.

Cllr Bill Collentine had a motion seeking an update on any advance of plans to have the overhead wiring transferred into underground ducting at Austin Friars Street.

Because of the presence of poles on one side of the street, it is impossible to install Christmas lights, he added.

In a written response, the district revealed that ducting has been installed along Austin Friars Street. “The cost/quotation of undergrounding the overhead cable will be sought from the ESB,” the response concluded.

Cllr Denis Leonard remarked that there are many places around Westmeath where the wiring is unsightly and the poles are in inopportune places.

“From an aesthetic point of view, it’s a disaster, but also from a point of view of safe transition through the town,” he said, adding that the ESB is “awash with money”, but it is always reluctant to put wiring into a duct rather than poles overhead.

Other councillors supporting Cllr Dollard’s motion were Ken Glynn and Julie McCourt, while the mayor, Cllr Mick Dollard, stated that Austin Friars Street was “kind of forgotten about”.

Director of services, Deirdre Reilly, said the street is the last in Mullingar that needs to have its wiring placed underground. “We will keep putting the pressure on the ESB to give us the cost for that and maybe a timeline as to when they could come in and do that.”