Athlone projects may grind to a standstill

Sewerage and water projects in Athlone, as well as plans for parks and playgrounds, could well be postponed for the foreseeable future. The Westmeath County Council Senior Engineer Greg Duggan told a recent meeting of the Transport and Infrastructure Committee that the slump in development levies was due to a halt in construction in the county. This decrease in what the council make in revenue from development levies could seriously affect projects planned by both the town and county councils as the government issued a directive earlier this year stating that all monies spent by councils this year can only come from development levies. However so far, there has been no confirmation as to what projects can go ahead or not this year. Councillor Mark Cooney said he disagrees with the notion that Athlone Town Council cannot invest the money is it has prudently saved on worthwhile projects for the benefit of the town if it means that the bank balance would drop below the 2008 net amount. He"s put down a motion for next week"s Westmeath County Council meeting, asking that the council confirm once and for all what it can spend money on this week, or what projects are affected by the government spending freeze. 'Of course development levies are down, but does that mean we can"t use our capital funding to build parks and playgrounds or develop water and sewerage projects?' said Cllr Cooney. 'Whatever we had at the beginning of this year has to be there at the end of this year and that"s all we know.' At this month"s Athlone Town Council meeting in early April, Town Clerk John Walsh said that the council is only allowed to spend money that is received this year. 'We can"t spend any more money than we take in,' said Mr Walsh. 'It"s the same with the capital account, which is financed by external grants. The retention of the net bank balance has to be the same at the end of this year as it was at the end of 2008.' Mr Walsh said that all major capital projects were on hold. 'If they cannot be sourced from major external sources (funding grants) then we need to source them elsewhere,' he added. Speaking of the levies at the transport and infrastructure meeting last week, Mr Duggan said 'they have almost dried up'. He told the meeting that the council depend on development levies to 'fund our part of the scheme' and the council"s funding for some schemes can be as high as 60 per cent.