‘Self-fulfilling prophecy’ - Fix West Street and Drogheda will follow says councillor

A Drogheda councillor has said fixing West Street would be a "self-fulfilling prophecy" and could spark the regeneration of the town. 

The comments were made by Fine Gael councillor for Drogheda Rural Anne Marie Ford at the March meeting of the Drogheda Borough District. 

She said the regeneration the West Street should be treated like a "tick the box exercise", starting with removing weeds from the street or painting buildings. 

Cllr Ford said once works to West Street are "visually evident" it could spark the town's economy into life. 

"When we get them all done it will be visually evident that West Street looks smarter, and again that piece about the self-fulfilling prophecy, once we have West Street looking well, it will encourage more businesses to come into the centre of the town that will drive the economy and therefore we will have a better looking town," she said.

Fianna Fáil councillor James Byrne questioned how the council would engage with what he called "a number of unregistered buildings" on the street. 

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Fine Gael councillor Ejiro O'Hare Stratton called on Louth County Council to use "joined-up thinking" with regards to projects such as West Street and said the local authority should work with property owners on issues that arise. 

"If we have a formal structure where we have West Street, there's a project for the town and we don't have to wait for a council plan first, we can go now, get the owners of those building together, we have issues on West Street, how are we going to solve them? 

"So everybody has joint thinking its everyone's responsibility, there are companies out there that can help us engage with that if we want," she said. 

A spokesperson for Louth County County said both formal and informal engagement takes place between stakeholders and noted the "Town Centre First" initiative which aims to tackle dereliction and vacancy. 

However, he labelled West Street a priority and said there is currently a "body of work" going on the street.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.