Moate
1 - September 2004
When will this Council provide more litter bins in the area?
Reply:
The Area Director requested that specific black spots be identified and forwarded to the Area Engineer for reassessment.
2 - November 2004
‘ Do the Executive not feel that the Athlone Electoral Area should have it’s own full time procedures and methods in place to carry out verge cutting when required on all our National, Secondary, Regional & Local roads instead of waiting for the Mullingar Area to release their machines?
Reply:
This activity is coordinated by the Director of Transportation & Infrastructure and the matter will be taken up with him to ensure a satisfactory service to the Athlone area in 2005. If necessary the Athlone area will revert to a local contractor.
3 - May 2005
‘ That this Council discuss the special speed limit guidelines recently released by the Minister with the objective of making our roads safer’.
Reply:
This Council has received guidelines from the Department regarding the preparation of byelaws in this regard. A report in the matter is expected to be placed before the Transportation & Infrastructure Strategic Policy committee at their next meeting on the 8th June 2005.
4 - July 2005
That this Council discuss the need to have development levies collected in the Athlone Electoral Area ring fenced to be spent on projects in the Athlone Electoral Area.
Reply:
This matter will be considered by the full council at it’s next meeting based on report recently circulated to the members. There is no provision for ring fencing unless they are special levies for specific projects.
5 - September 2005
When will this Council start the process of putting special speed limits in place at all our schools and also on our local and regional roads?
Reply:
The Roads Section has prepared a procedure for the implementation of special speed limit bye-laws. It is intended that Area Committee would now identify locations where it is considered a special speed limit should apply. All identified locations throughout the County will be referred to Road Design for consideration against the special speed limit implementation policy agreed by the members at the July meeting. This will be followed by a consultative process following which the adoption of the bye-laws is a reserved function of the County Council.
6 - January 2006:
Will this Council provide another disabled bay in Moate?
Reply:
The Council is awaiting a further Disability Audit for Moate.
This matter can be considered when this Audit is to hand.
7 - March 2006:
That this Council discuss the need to review it’s fire service cover for the Moate/Athlone area.
Reply:
There are no national standards of fire cover in Ireland. However, the issue of fire brigade cover for the entire County of Westmeath was the subject of a presentation at the Environmental SPC meeting help on the 29th March 2005. The presentation showed the area that would be served within 20 minutes from activation of the fire brigade from the various stations that service Westmeath including stations in Longford, Offaly and Meath. The time of 20 minutes is taken from a UK standard. Moate is covered by Kilbeggan and Athlone fire brigades. As noted to the SPC, we will review the situation when standards of cover are provided for Ireland and in the meantime, Moate is within 20 minutes of Kilbeggan & Athlone Fire Seations. Cllr. Keena noted the reply received and added that he had placed this motion on the agenda as a result of the increasing populations in the Moate area.
8 - March 2006:
What is the status of the proposed special speed limits submitted by the Area members last Autumn?
Reply:
The Area Office is completing a survey of the speed limit locations as required by the Speed Limits Implementation Policy adopted by the members. Area Office and Road Design will liaise in advance of finalizing the recommendations for the full Council.
9 - May 2006:
Further to the excellent work carried out by this Council in erecting signage in the Athlone electoral area, can this Council now consider a programme of work erecting directional signs at all junctions on our roads in the area?
Reply:
There is an ongoing programme of replacement of directional signs on our local roads in the Athlone Area.
10 - May 2006:
When will we have a report on the proposed special speed limits for the Athlone Area?
Reply:
The Area Engineers are finalizing the proposals for 2006. Each area has had to validate many proposals as a result of the proposals received from members. This validation involves the assessment of current speeds, review of accident history and inspections of the road environment at each location. As soon as all areas have submitted their validated proposals, Road Design will commence the statutory processes for these locations. This is a countywide exercise and thus delays from any one area may cause some delay to the finalisation of draft by-laws. This is necessary because any special speed limits are affected by such by-laws. During the policy formulation process it was considered that the publication of speed limit by-laws more that once a year would not be efficient. We are expecting that this process will be completed 3 to 4 months ahead of the schedule given in the policy document.
11 - January 2007:
That this Council invite a representative from IDA Ireland to our March 2007 meeting to update us on their plans for Athlone and Moate in relation to job creation.
Reply:
IDA Ireland will be contacted.
12 - July 2007:
What is the delay in erecting the special speed limits signs that were adopted by the Council about six months ago?
Reply:
Athlone Area Office received details of the agreed locations from road design and will arrange the erection of these signs asap. In response to Cllr. Keena it was confirmed that the operative speed limits are as approved in the respective areas but that they are ineffective pending the erection of appropriate signage.
13 - May 2008:
That this Council in conjunction with the Kilbeggan Area Office provide passing bays on the Maghermore Road from Mount Temple to the Farnagh Interchange off the new motorway.
