Thumbs down to more greenway fencing in Athlone urban area

A bid by Cllr John Dolan to have more fencing installed along the sections of greenway that run through the Athlone urban area has been given the thumbs down by Westmeath County Council.

“I'm not looking for big industrial-style fencing,” clarified Cllr Dolan when he submitted a motion on the issue at the September meeting of the Athlone Moate Municipal District, “but we have to make sure that we protect the homeowners who were there long before the greenway.”

The council's response to his motion stated that it was “not intended” to fence the greenway in the urban areas of Athlone. “Such fencing will diminish the greenway experience,” local authority management added.

Cllr Dolan said he was “a little bit annoyed” with the response, and he proposed that a report be compiled to see what work has been done on fencing the greenway and what work remains to be done. This was seconded by Cllr Tom Farrell.

“Caging off the urban space is not necessarily the right approach,” said District Manager Willie Ryan, “and it's not something we would agree with.” He added that CIE was still the property owners of the section of greenway that runs through the urban areas of Athlone.

Cllr Dolan had raised the issue of greenway fencing on numerous occasions in the past at municipal district meetings, and made a startling claim at a meeting in January 2022 that “spotters” were operating on the greenway in Athlone while burglaries were being carried out at houses along the route.

Cllr Dolan said in 2022 that the privacy and security of a number of homes along the greenway was being “severely compromised” due to the absence of any type of screening. Referring to the situation in Roslevin Lawns, he said the people using the greenway can “look straight into” the back lawns and doors of the houses in the estate.

“What is happening is that spotters are being put on the greenway while other people are breaking into houses,” he claimed, “and it is not good enough. 99% of people who use the greenway are using it for leisure purposes but it’s the other 1% that are causing all the problems.”

Cllr Dolan was speaking on a motion in which he called on the council to engage with the Gardai and local residents in areas that are overlooked by the greenway “with a view to providing CCTV and fencing off parts that overlook existing properties, particularly in urban Athlone.” The motion received widespread support from a number of other councillors.

Despite the fact that Westmeath County Council turned down Cllr Dolan's latest bid to have security fencing installed along the section of greenway that runs through the urban area of Athlone, they recently installed 150 metres of fencing along a section of greenway that runs past a number of houses in Altown and Garrycastle, and the next phase of fencing will include a section of Roslevin Lawns.