Lack of slipway at Ladestown highlighted during lake search

Volunteers who intended setting out from Ladestown to participate in the recent searches for a man missing in Lough Ennell had to turn around and leave because there is no slipway there from which their vessels could launch.

“To see those actually turn around and to have to come back was just really unfortunate,” Cllr Aoife Davitt told colleagues at the October meeting of the Municipal District of Mullingar Kinnegad.

She was speaking on a motion she submitted calling on the district to place a slipway at Ladestown, and reminded officials that both she and Cllr Andrew Duncan have been making this plea “for years”.

Cllr Julie McCourt supported the call, and said she too has submitted motions in the past, while Cllr Emily Wallace said that what had happened showed the importance of having the infrastructure in place when it is required and not retrospectively trying to get work done.

Cllr Duncan also spoke on the subject: “I brought this up in the first year I was elected, and I brought it up, I think, five times in total,” he said, adding that putting in a slipway was not a major task, and stating that because of the geography, Ladestown was a most appropriate place for a slipway.

Cllr Duncan said that originally, most of the boats that used to go out on Lough Ennell came up along the Brosna: “They were all moored along the actual Brosna which is no longer viable because of the weed growth.

“Even coming out from Hopes Point, it’s not possible to get out any more because of the weed growth. The most appropriate place and the most sheltered place and the most utilised place would be Ladestown,” he said, adding that he was frustrated that no action had yet been taken, even though the project would be relatively straightforward.

“I’m not really sure why this is causing so much hassle,” he said, pointing out that the angling club had recently done “a hell of a good job” in installing one at Whitebridge Bay.

The formal written response to Cllr Davitt’s proposal stated that the district office had advised that it would examine suitable funding streams for the installation of a slipway at Ladestown, and director of services Deirdre Reilly told Cllr Davitt she would ask the district engineer to cost the slipway, outline what needs to be done to construct it and establish what environmental assessments would first be needed.

“One hundred per cent it is doable, but really, we need to know how much it costs and then how can we implement it, and does this need budgetary funding or can it be done out of our own existing funding, or is this where we go and we ask the management team to support this from other funding,” she said.

Cllr Duncan said he believed that the council would not necessarily have to pay for it, as there could be funds available from Inland Fisheries Ireland or tourism funds.

Supported by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme