Demolition of St Mel's Terrace continues

Demolition work is continuing at St Mel's Terrace in Athlone, with a further sixteen houses set to be demolished inside the coming two weeks. A contractor is carrying out the destruction of the vacant houses on behalf of Athlone Town Council. Speaking to the Westmeath Independent yesterday (Tuesday), Town Clerk John Walsh stated that the houses numbered 11 to 26 should be demolished, and the rubble cleared, "within the next two weeks." Six houses were knocked during the first phase of the demolition which took place in June 2008. As a result, only nine of the original 31 houses at St Mel's Terrace will remain in place once the current phase of the process is completed. Three of these nine houses are occupied, with one family's home located in a block of four houses, another within a block of three houses and another in a block of two houses. The council is planning to build three new houses for the families, one of which will be situated on a part of the existing St Mel's Terrace site. The other two houses are due to be situated on Grace Road. Mr Walsh said the planning process for the three houses had been finalised and he was hopeful that their construction would begin in the near future. He hoped the remaining St Mel's Terrace residents would be able to move into their new homes "either by the end of this year or shortly thereafter." The council's Loughanaskin local area plan, adopted in 2007, outlined plans for the development of a new 'Town Centre Neighbourhood' in and around St Mel's Terrace. It was foreseen that this development would include 200 new residences, along with office and commercial premises and 480 new carparking spaces. Mr Walsh acknowledged that, given the condition of the economy, such a development was not likely to occur in the near future. "The Loughanaskin local area plan shows how we'd like to see the area developed. It's unlikely that we will be disposing of the site in the immediate future but at least it's a site we will have ready," he said "There were 31 houses at St Mel's and only three are occupied at this stage, so what seemed like a very difficult process in the beginning is now coming to an end."