The Executive of Rosocmmon County Council has confirmed that it has no intention of closing down local area offices on a permanent basis.
While there is limited opening of the Aras An Chondae and Muncipal District Offices in Athlone and Boyle, area offices in Castlerea, Ballaghaderrreen and Strokestown are open by appointment only.
Director of Services Martin Lydon says that he was aware of some speculation that the outlying offices were not going to re-open but he stated that this completely without foundation.
He says the smaller offices have capacity issues when it comes to applying Covid 19 social distancing measures for staff and the public and that is why they remain closed.
While acknowleding that there is an audit of interaction with local area services ongoing, My Lydon says it has been underway for some time and is feeding into the overall digital transformation of all local authority servies and is not in any way linked to the ongoing restrictions on local offices.
