Leinster Council blamed for crowd control farce at Cusack Park

 

Leinster Council has been criticised by Westmeath County Board delegates for its grasp of event control prior to the recent Leinster SFC match between Westmeath and Carlow at Cusack Park, which was delayed by ten minutes over safety concerns.
“Some people around the county think it was the county board’s fault, but the fault was with Leinster Council, and not with us,” Westmeath football committee chairman, Liam Gavin told last week's county board meeting.
Mullingar Shamrocks delegate Des Maguire raised the matter, expressing his disgust that Leinster Council “saw fit to come down and run the ticket office” on the day.
“I thought we had people in Westmeath who were well capable of doing that,” he said. “It led to the match being put back ten minutes. It was very badly handled.”
Although explaining that Leinster Council handles event control for its own games, county board chairman Sean Sheridan agreed, citing Cusack Park’s efficient running of the All-Ireland club semi-final between St Brigid’s and Crossmaglen earlier this year, which drew some 6,500 people.
He said that on the day of the Westmeath v Carlow game, local officials were made available to man turnstiles at the venue, but instead a huge queue had formed at one window on the ticket booth, blocking the public thoroughfare.
A ten minute delay was subsequently called by a Leinster Council event controller and the Gardaí.
“We offered to help, but we were told that it was out of our hands,” Mr Sheridan said, vowing to carry delegates’ feelings to Leinster Council.
“It shouldn’t happen here,” added county secretary, James Savage. “We’re well capable of getting a thousand people through in ten minutes, let alone 500.”