This week Cllr. Frankie Keena, Westmeath County Council reacted strongly to a suggestion by Alan Shaw in last week’s Westmeath Independent that there was a lack of ‘political drive and initiative’ in moving the proposed Garrycastle Bridge realignment along.
I would agree with him that serious questions need to asked of our public representatives regarding the pace of moving things along but he should first look within his own party for the answers, he said.
It is a pity he did not ask his party colleagues who attended the Athlone Area Council committee meeting in November 2006 as to why they did not give support to Westmeath County Council’s proposed R916 Garrycastle Bridge realignment which was on the agenda for approval. As Chairman of this committee at the time I raised the need to adopt this proposal to alleviate congestion in the area and to make the road more pedestrian friendly.
It was the Fianna Fail members who pushed this through and as a consequence the Council have appointed consultants to do a detail design of the bridge. After this is completed and agreed it will be forwarded to the Department for capitol funding to build. So far WCC have received some interim funding from the Government, which is being used for property acquisition and design.
If this decision was not taken at that time we would now be in serious trouble as to find options, stressed Cllr. Keena.
Every effort needs to be continued to keep this project a top priority, particularly when the Council seek the necessary funding from the Department. As the local public representative in the area I can assure the public that I will see this project to completion, concluded Cllr. Keena.
