New Council HQ must be in the heart of Limerick: Scully
Cllr Diarmuid Scully
THE new single authority for Limerick “has to be headquartered in the heart of the city”, Cllr Diarmuid Scully has said in welcoming a comprehensive new plan to be drawn up for the city centre.
It has been confirmed in recent days that the Department of the Environment and both local authorities are to evenly split the costs of the plan, a recommendation of the Brosnan Report and one which Cllr Scully said was citywide in scope but had the revival of the city centre as its driver.
He expects the plan to go to tender by Easter and, if adopted, to be incorporated into the statutory development plans. And Cllr Scully said it must address the four areas he believes are most responsible for the city centre’s decline - population, employment, retail and government services.
“The decline in our city centre didn’t happen overnight. It is part of a process that has been going on for half a century, beginning with the depopulation of the city centre through the building of suburban housing estates from the 1960s on.”
Next had come the development of suburban shopping centres and the closure in the 1980s of the traditional city employers - Ranks, Halpin’s tea, Clunes tobacco, Geary’s sweets and Limerick bacon factory.
“When new employment was attracted to replace these declining industries, it was again directed to the suburbs – the Raheen industrial estate and Plassey Technological Park. Even when the university for which the people of the city had campaigned so strongly was finally built, it was located outside the city.
“Government services have also been withdrawn – medical services to the Regional hospital and Limerick County Council to the Crescent shopping centre. This resulted in the direct loss of hundreds of white collar jobs from the city centre and had the knock-on effect of deflecting users of these services away from the city towards the suburbs,” said Cllr Scully.
The net effect of building council offices in Dooradoyle was 1,000 jobs had been removed from the city centre.
And if the decline of the city centre was to be arrested, Cllr Scully said it was critical the new local authority would be based in town.
“Three hundred years ago, Edmund Sexton Perry devised and executed a plan to build a beautiful Georgian city in Limerick. This new plan is the first real opportunity since then to fashion a city we can all be proud of. We have to get it right”
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Wednesday 23 May 2012
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Comments
There are 4 comments to this article
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Seimi
Friday, February 17, 2012 at 05:46 AMI have seen the city decline over so many years. I went to school in the city centre in the very early 90's and even then it was more vibrant. When I was a child Saturday in town was packed with people. Now its dead sometimes. There is no imagination in political circles in Limerick. The only people trying to brighten up the city is the art college. The Milk Market is good and the roof is cool but if you want to trade there it will take two years. Why should it take so long for someone to trade. Surely it would be a good thing to have more stalls? Security wise Limerick is a joke. I live in the biggest city in the world right now and I can walk around at any time of night and feel safe. Why when I go home should I have to feel nervous. If the Gardai cant handle it they should copy New York and set up a group of volunteers to stand in the streets and report any problems immediately. The streets have been handed over to a group of thugs. Limerick is in fact a great looking city. It has a great Georgian feel to it yet developers are allowed build monstrosities. Limerick needs to be marketed as a place of sporting enthusiasm, a place of learning and a place of fun by day and night. the council should actively get involved in as many events be they small or large and promote the hell out of the place. It should be everyone's civic duty to actively try and improve the city. The thugs that litter the city corners should be removed immediately.
pete999
Thursday, February 16, 2012 at 11:24 AMDo I hear that Councillors are NOW welcoming the formation of a single authority..........what a load of hypocrats. Were they not denouncing this move right from the start, some even insulting people from outside the City (i am from and live in the city) The New Council does not need to be in the City, in fact it would probably be better off somewhere in the suburbs for easy access....bearing in mind local population spread..... Why not locate in the existing Doradoyle site...it would save on taking on a new building and the costs associated with that, never mind relocation payouts !!
CromadhAbu
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 07:36 PMCouldn't agree with you more Paddymog. The city has been in decline for years with decisions made by City Council aided and abetted by Cllr Scully and his ilk. All Clly Scully need do is read the article regarding the young man that went recklessly about the city centre accosting people ... one a tourist ..... robbing them and eventually using a knife on an innocent man. This is not an isolated incident and the vast majority of Limerick people are apalled and sickened by such occurances. But, they continue and one has to ask where are the Gardaí and why do we not see them on street patrols.This would be a far better deterrent than arriving en masse like the cavalary after the event. Is Cllr Scully blind to all of this, and again citizens have to ask, is the Mayor and other Cllrs likewise blinkered. Not to mention also is the sight of daily muggings and bag snatching of people in particular senior citizens. Is it any wonder the city is empty! Wake up Cllr Scully, its not the moving out to the suburbs that caused the decline. Then as Paddymogs mentioned ..... PARKING ..... and the exhorbitant cost of same. If you are brave enough to actually go shopping in the city centre you have the Brown Street Brigade waiting to pounce with their automated ticket machine and resultant exhorbitant fines. Does that encourage people to shop in the city Cllr Scully ????? I don't think so Sir, and it never will. I won't even mention the high rise car parks as you would need to lay a sizeable sum of Euro aside to get out of them.All built I might add with tax breaks. Limerick used to be known one time as the 'city of the broken treaty'. It should now be renamed 'the city of the traffic lights'. As a simple example, from the Kilmurry Roundabout you have to negotiate 13 sets of traffic lights to reach William Streel O'Connell Street corner. Now thats an awful lot of hassle when compared to the dual way for the majority of your journey to the Crescent Shopping centre. With free parking, roof over your head shopping, great buzz etc etc .... need I say any more!!! You know Im sorry to say, but, if Limerick City are dependent on some of your ideas as in the above article then we are in for decades more decline. What I have to feel extremely sorry for, are the fine businesses that are trying to earn a living, create employment and provide an ambiance to entice shoppers into the city centre but are being hampered at every turn by silly Cllrs and thoughtless decisions of City Hall.
Paddymog
Monday, February 13, 2012 at 06:53 PMGreat God, what an eejit. Th e four areas that have turned the city into a ghetto are robbings, arson, stabbings and shootings. Wake up dude, and smell the coffee. Blaming the Co. Council's move to Dooradoyle for the city's problems is a joke. The County Council was the only local authority in the country not situated in its functional area. Country people couldn't come in to Limerick and do business because of the City Council's parking regime. They cam come to Dooradoyle, do their business, have a burger in McDonalds and a wee in the Shopping Centre. If you take this logic to its conclusion, Rathkeale is where it shoud go - the geographic centre of the county and in need of a few jobs. Scully bemoans the big modern industries going to the suburbs, as he calls them - where would he have put Dell in the city? On O'Connell St? Where would he put Vistakon and Analog? The City Council through its short-sighted decision making has made the city what it is - an international joke. With idiotic reasoning like this, it's no wonder. By sheer force of numbers the County Councillors are going to win the vote on this one, welcome to Dooradoyle, dude.
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