Funding to be sought as plans to revitalise centre of Limerick village move forward

PLANS to revitalise the centre of Dromcollogher have moved a step forward after councillors backed the draft Dromcollogher Public Realm and Tourism Plan.

Local councillors were presented with the draft plans at the March meeting of the Newcastle West Municipal District, in a renewed push for the project, which was previously “paused” in 2023.

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Karen Burke, Town Regeneration Officer, was present at the meeting and outlined the current high-level strategic plan for the town to councillors, explaining that if formally noted by the them, the project would be able to progress to the next stage of “detailed design”. 

Ms Burke explained that the original draft plan was made available for public consultation events in 2021 and 2022, being updated taking into account submissions made by the public, and the plan before them was last updated in July 2023.

She said that the key constraint for the project is the "permeability" of a green space in the centre of the village, citing one of the biggest issues as the width of the roads surrounding the "very busy junction."

The initial April 2022 plan, sought to narrow to road as a traffic calming measure, but was changed following the December 2022 update, to instead implement a thatched space on the road. The shared parking in the area was also changed from parallel spots to perpendicular.

The latest plan takes into account all submissions made at the various public consultations.

She stated that the next step was for the plan to be noted by elected members as this would enable funding for the detailed design stage to be sought. Following the completion of this stage, the plan would move to the 'Part 8' part of the planning process.

There was unanimous support from elected members after the Cathaoirleach for the district, Cllr Michael Collins, proposed that the draft plan be formally noted.