Retrofit work on Battery Heights houses to begin shortly

Westmeath County Council has said a housing retrofit programme in the Battery Heights estate in Athlone should be getting underway shortly, and should be fully completed by next March.

At the monthly meeting of the local authority yesterday (Monday), Cllr Aengus O'Rourke asked for an update on the retrofitting of houses in the west-Athlone estate.

"The retrofit scheme for Battery Heights has been on the radar for a long time, but it has still to hit the ground," he pointed out.

Council official Mark Keaveney replied that preparations for carrying out the scheme were at an advanced stage.

"We are on site on Battery Heights, and have been since the summer. All of the houses have been surveyed and measured," he said.

"The windows are ordered and they are to be delivered to the site fairly shortly. The contractor will then be working through the houses on a phased basis."

He said that, in addition to Battery Heights, the contractor was working on a retrofit scheme in Mullingar, and it was expected that eight houses would be completed each week.

The contractor "expects to have the majority of the work done by Christmas," he said, adding that scheme was due to be fully completed in the first three months of the new year.