Disappoinment at loss of Westmeath council seat in Athlone area

There has been disappointment this week from all sides of the political spectrum at the loss of a council seat in the Athlone Area of Westmeath County Council, bringing it from a seven seater to a six seater and moving the Auburn and Muckanagh electoral divisions into the Kilbeggan area. As local county councillors look forward to a tightly-fought election next year they say they are astounded at the thought process behind such a move. Fine Gael"s Mark Cooney, who is the councillor located closest geographically to the areas concerned, said this week he was not happy with the decision reached by the Boundary Commission. Cllr Cooney said while the loss of a seat in the Athlone area was to justify an additional seat in Coole and eliminate three seaters, it meant people living close to Athlone would now have to travel to Kilbeggan for matters such as planning. 'Athlone is the town they shop in and do their business in. From an electoral point of view and a practical point of view it doesn"t make sense. I"m disappointed Athlone is losing a councillor,' he said. He added that the area in question was close to where he lived and he would have had a strong vote there in the past. 'There area seven sitting councillors at the moment, one of them has to go, it"s going to be tight,' he said. Cllr Cooney also pointed out that because Athlone was a Gateway town the Government had been encouraging the growth of the town, but he said this was not helped by a decrease in public representation. He also raised the old issue of the Roscommon side of town and said the people in the Monksland area should be represented by Athlone Town Council. 'I wouldn"t be expecting it to happen, but the Athlone borough council should be increased to include it as one. For proper planning a town doesn"t need two local authorities making independent decisions. It"s not the same as one body looking at the town as a whole. There is no reason why people couldn"t be represented by Athlone Town Council and Roscommon County Council, the same way as people on the east side are represented by Athlone Town Council and Westmeath County Council.' Cllr Cooney was also concerned about the impact the loss of Auburn and Muckanagh would have on funding for the Athlone area. 'There has to be less funding coming into the area. Roads funding is granted on the length of the roads in a particular area. There will also be fewer staff in the area, there will be readjustments there,' he said. Cllr Kieran Molloy said he was also disappointed with the loss of a seat in the area. 'Athlone is expected to be a growth area as part of the Gateway; between the three towns it"s anticipated there will be a 50% population growth. Apart from that it"s madness that people in Muckanagh will have to travel to Kilbeggan in relation to local authority matters,' he said. He said while the objective was to make Coole a four seater, there was ample opportunity to transfer from parts of Mullingar and added that the Commission could have transferred Mount Temple into Athlone. ' It doesn"t make any sort of common sense geographically,' said the Fianna Fáil councillor. His party colleague Cllr Tom Allen was in agreement with Cllr Molloy and said the Commission should have transferred Mount Temple and Drumraney back into Athlone and kept the area as a seven-seater. 'Personally I think they were only tinkering around with it. What they have done doesn"t make any sense. They should have left that area there and brought back in the likes of Mount Temple and Drumraney and kept Athlone as a seven seater. It is eight miles to Athlone from Auburn and Muckanagh and 30 miles to Kilbeggan. I don"t know where they"re coming from with these plans,' he said. He also said next year"s local elections would be more competitive and he said it would be harder for him to be elected. 'It will be very hard for me to get elected. I would pick up a few votes in that area. I was the last one elected last time after a recount with six votes to spare,' said Cllr Allen. Cllr Frankie Keena was also disappointed at the loss of a seat in the area and said the administration of the Athlone area had worked very well with seven seats. 'It"s unfortunate that the powers that be have indentified that a seven-seater was not needed in Athlone. I"m disappointed that Auburn and Muckanagh have gone into the Kilbeggan area, I got a good vote in that area and I"ve done a lot of work there over the last few years. It"s unfair on the people living in those areas, they now have to go to the Kilbeggan Area Officer,' he said. He added that while the Commission had made Coole a four-seater a high population area had been penalised in the process. 'We"re going to be penalised in the Athlone area with the budget. We"re budgeted according to the kilometres of roads we have; we will be penalised and Kilbeggan will get a bigger slice of the cake. I think the criteria should be changed and allocations should be made according to the population,' he said. 'Athlone is the hub of the county, it shouldn"t be penalised by taking away seats.' Fine Gael"s John Dolan said it was less practical for people to travel from Auburn and Muckanagh to Kilbeggan than Athlone and pointed out that the Athlone area will now have the highest number of electorate per councillor in the county. However, he added that with the release of the new boundaries last week, councillors now knew where they stood going into next year"s local elections. 'It leaves us in the position that we know where we are now, we know the boundary and the number of seats.' His party colleague Joe Whelan said he was amazed that the Commission had taken an area that was geographically aligned to Athlone and moved it to Kilbeggan. 'Half of Mount Temple is in Athlone and half of it is in Kilbeggan and they could have looked at that,' he said. He added that the move puts pressure on all local councillors going into next year"s local elections and said Fine Gael"s aim would be to retain its three seats in the area. 'The conventions are in the autumn and we will be looking at the number of candidates we"ll be putting forward. There are three seats at the moment and our aim will be to keep those three seats. I"m of the opinion we could get more votes out of Athlone town. If we held the three seats I would be happy with that,' he said.