Limerick town set for €100,000 windfall under 'Town Centre First' scheme

ABBEYFEALE is set to benefit from a new scheme which will develop master plans for 26 town centres nationwide. The West Limerick town has been selected as the Limerick choice to avail of the scheme which was announced by Minister for Rural and Community Development, Heather Humphreys this Thursday. 

A sum of €100,000 will be spent on researching and developing Town Centre First Plans,  for each of the 26 towns.

“Abbeyfeale Community Council is delighted that the town has been selected as part of this pilot scheme,” Maurice O’Connell, chairman of the community council said. “The most important thing for us, is that once the Town Centre First Plan is created, there will be funding available to follow up.”

The focus will be on tackling dereliction and vacant properties and on making each town centre more attractive places to live, work, socialise and run a business.

"The development of these 26 plans will feed into the government's overall Town Centre First Policy which will be launched in the coming weeks,"Minister Humphreys said.

The Abbeyfeale announcement follows on a number of other developments in the pipeline for town.  An ambitious  multi-million euro Traffic Management Plan has been agreed after many changes  but has now to secure funding before it can proceed.  Last month, the preferred route for a by-pass of Abbeyfeale was announced.