Following a number of break-ins and attempted burglaries, please report any suspicious behavior immediately to Mullingar Gardai and consider reviewing your home security; simple things like ensuring your alarm is in working order and activated and ensuring no valuables are visible in your vehicle can make a difference. Additional tips can be found in previous posts or on Garda.ie
Category: House & garden
Laneway clean-up
Volunteer members of Ashefield Residents Association recently carried out a clean-up of a closed-off laneway within the estate. Many thanks to Joe, John and Dave who kindly gave up some of their spare time to do this. If anyone has some spare time to help with similar efforts, it would be greatly appreciated – feel free to get in contact by email if you might be able to help [info@165.227.235.101]
Free electrical & battery recycling event
Westmeath Co. Co. has issued a notice regarding a free electrical and battery recycling event on Friday, 2nd March, 2012. The drop-off point will be the Tesco carpark. They’ll accept any household electrical item with a plug or battery e.g. IT equipment, large and small domestic appliances, home entertainment appliances, and all bulbs and batteries. Staff will be on-hand to help with unloading. No commercial waste will be accepted.
If you bring 5 or more items, you could be in with a chance to win a HP laptop – the draw will take place on the day at 4pm.
Wallace Recycling change their bin collection schedule
Wallace Recycling recently moved to fortnightly refuse/recycling collections. This means they won’t collect green (refuse) and blue (recycling) on the same week anymore. Their updated calendar can be found here
According to their website:
General rubbish collected only on weeks in white. Day of collection has not changed. Recycle bin collected only on weeks marked blue. Day of collection has not changed. For further information contact 044 9347177
Free electrical and electronic waste collection
From 10am to 4pm today, you can bring your waste electrical products to a free ERP recycling centre at Tesco.
Products that has/had a battery or plug can be brought e.g.
- IT equipment / large domestic appliances
- Electric kettles / electric heaters
- Power tools / game consoles / dishwashers
- Microwave ovens / televisions / radios
- Video players / electric lawn mowers
- Lighting equipment / bulbs / tubes / flashlamps
Staff will be on hand to assist with unloading and both plug and battery-operated electrical waste will be accepted. Commercial waste will not be accepted
New waste management option – AES
Representatives from AES Waste Management visited the estate and attended our recent AGM. They have a new range of pricing structures that may prove attractive to residents.
Two options are available. One is on a monthly fee 
basis where recycling and refuse are collected every two weeks for €16.50 until up to next year. This includes a glass bin collection service every 12 weeks.
The second option is a pay by lift service, which is the most common option in the estate at the moment with existing waste management companies. They are charging €6.99 for general waste bin collection (up to to 65kg and 18c/kg in excess of 65kg) and €1.99 for a recycling bin. The duration of this limited period option is not known yet but does represent the lowest cost option when compared to Wallace and Allied Waste at the moment.
Collection day
AES will collect bins on Fridays in Ashefield.
Saying goodbye to bin tags
AES are also offering a pay as you go service if you set up an account with them. This means that the cost of each bin lift can be deducted from your account. You can top this up online, over the phone, or at an outlet, and you’ll receive a text when your balance is low.
Local employment
Some employees of AES live in Ashefield and when AES were asked at the AGM, they stated that they do employ a large number of people from the Mullingar area.
Opportunities for the estate
At the AGM, AES mentioned that depending on the amount of signed-up customers in Ashefield, skips and cleaning equipment for the estate may be made available on a yearly business for estate spring-cleans and other clear-outs with free skip collection when full.
So there you are – another option worth considering for bin collection. If you have any questions, the best option is to call them at 1850 650 655
Ashefield Residents Association AGM 2011
The next Ashefield residents’ association meeting is scheduled for Thursday, April 7, 2011 from 8pm in the Newbury Hotel, Mullingar.
Every resident is invited to attend, contribute ideas, highlight problems, and have an important say in the management of the estate. The committee comprises ordinary residents from the estate who volunteer their time and expertise for free. If you might be considering getting more involved, this would be an ideal opportunity to do so.
The draft agenda is as follows.
- Introduction
- Why do we need a Residents Association
- Responsibilities of each resident
- Annual contribution for upkeep of green areas
- Tenants/Landlords Responsibilities
- Apartment Block
- Laneways
- Deterring street games and ensuring safety
- Ashefield Website
- Financial Statement for 2010
- Election of new committee
- Any other business
More items for the agenda are encouraged. Feel free to use the comments area below or send an email to info@165.227.235.101.
Census 2011
The next census will take place on the night of Sunday April 10, 2011 and will count all the people and households in the country on that night. The census enumerator is currently delivering census forms to each household in Ashefield.
Children playing ball games in the street
A report was received that local children using a wall close to houses near the front of the estate for football have damaged a house window and regularly hit cars with the balls also . Despite different groups having been asked on numerous occasions by local residents to use one of the green areas instead, they refuse to.
In one recent case, a resident witnessed a ball cracking the front window of a house and setting off the alarm. 
One solution is to ask parents to encourage their children not to play in the middle of the street and to use the green areas for ball games instead (and under supervision for safety purposes). In addition to the potential for further damage to property, there exists a real danger of an incident involving a moving car given that is the busiest point of the estate in terms of traffic. This problem has been noted for a future residents’ association meeting.
In the meantime, if you have any suggestions, please use the comments area below. In an effort to combat spam and hoax comments, comments may not appear immediately but will appear when approved by a moderator.
Water restrictions set to continue for the next 5 nights
Westmeath Co. Co. issued a water supply update for Westmeath just after 4pm today, which was quickly updated by the current notice released at 5pm. Despite the plan to continue the water restrictions, the evening shut-off time has been extended to 9pm . This, no doubt, should be a relief to those of you who returned to work today and may have a distance to travel.
• Tuesday night / Wednesday morning – Tuesday 4th January /Wednesday 5th January, 9.00pm to 9.00 am
All water consumers are advised that nightly water supply restrictions will continue in order to replenish water levels in Council reservoirs for the next 5 nights.
Standpipes throughout the Mullingar Area have been withdrawn today, Tuesday due to the improvement in supply.
Last night and early this morning, we emailed our local Mullingar West councilors Robert Troy and Ken Glynn in addition to Westmeath Co. Co. The emails asked for help by postponing the shut-off times until 10pm in order to allow the commuting workers in our local area a chance to get home and to use mains-fed showers, cook, and wash before the water is switched off. These messages were followed up by more phone calls to the council today.
Update [06-Jan]: Robert Troy contacted me to say he talked to the council about the water. Thanks for that, Robert.