Athlone Christmas lights branded "an embarrassment"

The Christmas lights in Athlone are “an embarrassment”, according to Cllr Michael O’Brien. Speaking at the annual budget meeting of the county council, he urged they be upgraded. 

The council allocated €30,000 each to Athlone and Mullingar towards their Christmas lights.
According to Cllr O’Brien it would take all €60,000 to upgrade the Athlone lights, “but it needs to be done”. 
“Some towns have great lights, simple but great. We have a lovely street scape in Athlone and we need to upgrade our lights," he insisted.
He was supported by Cllr Frankie Keena who said “we have to see how we can source serious funding for this – if we are to have more footfall into the town we have to make it attractive”.
The meeting was told that the council needed to liaise with the local business interests and the Chamber of Commerce in Athlone to make progress on upgrading the Christmas lights.