OPINION: Is Tullamore willing to lose its parking spaces?

POSSIBLY the best reason for studying history is to learn lessons which can inform our future actions and the new collection of essays ‘The Making of O’Connor Square, Tullamore-People Houses and Business’ edited by Michael Byrne which will be launched on the 10th December at 5.00 in the Brewery Tap, does just that.

Thanks to Michael and other scholars we now know exactly how O'Connor Square evolved, how it was used over time, who and how many people lived in each house, its architectural character and quality and we can assess the impact of the recent transformation of its northern side.

The alteration of this long established and highly convenient central car park into an attractive public area with the Market House as its backdrop, has been the most visible and dramatic change in the character and visual appearance of Tullamore. Its image has become the calling card of the town’s tourism offer and shows the way forward for the creation of a more attractive town centre.

But its delivery highlighted the problem which has bedevilled almost every similar scheme all over Ireland and not just Tullamore - the reluctance to remove convenient and relatively cheap surface parking in order to improve the public realm.

The Growth of Retail

The commercial success of Tullamore in the 1970s was helped by the decline of the traditional industries located in the town centre. Their closure coincided with an improving economy and burgeoning car ownership and from then on the planning of Tullamore would be largely devoted to the accommodation of the motor car.

The availability of large, cheap and accessible car parks encouraged national multiples to locate in the very centre of the town. Though car ownership increased further in the following years, even the arrival of out of town retail couldn't undermine the attractiveness of the town centre which was sustained by the extensive and convenient spaces of O’Connor Square, at Kilbride, O’Neill Place and the Bridge Centre.

But today, as national policy shifts towards reducing motor car journeys and concentrating on the liveability of town centres, Offaly County Council has begun to prepare the ground for a new direction by revealing initial proposals for the regeneration of key central sites - mainly for residential development.

The Council has commissioned and published studies justifying the creation of a local transport network incorporating bus routes and separate cycle and pedestrian paths.. Proposals for delivering sustainable access and permeability have been advanced.

A vision is now beginning to emerge of a compact town centre with higher density infill housing accessed by continuous and safe cycling and pedestrian access, increased greenery and public space,

Tullamore will also be used as a test bed for interventions in transport to promote its recent designation as a decarbonising zone

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A New Plan?

The inevitable consequence of these new directions will be the reduction of convenient key surface car parks and well located on-street parking. The proposals outlined in the Tullamore Urban Regeneration Framework Plan Study published in June of last year, may require the removal of somewhere between a quarter to a third of the surface parking presently spaces available in the town centre.

No proposals have been made for their replacement, car ownership is still rising at about 16% each year and a rising population will add to demand.

A quick look through the national and provincial newspapers shows that the removal of surface or on street parking spaces to provide cycle lanes, dedicated bus routes, pedestrian walkways or public spaces has caused controversy in every city and town in Ireland where they have been proposed.

The only way of avoiding rows like these is the making of a clearcut statutory Urban Area Plan which, after extensive consultation, will provide solutions acceptable to retailers, motorists, environmentalists, conservationists, business people and the general public. Such a plan for central Tullamore was promised in 2021 but has yet to appear. In the meantime it is neither wise nor financially responsible to implement individual unconnected projects without having the context and rationale afforded by a comprehensive plan.

The statutory process for the making and adoption of such a plan is set at two years. This period should have commenced last October as the life of the current County Offaly Development Plan came to its close, but it didn’t and no announcements have been made as to when the process for making a new Plan will commence.

We can only hope that the County Council’s planners who delivered the excellent O’Connor Square pedestrianisation are presently beavering away behind closed doors on the first ever statutory comprehensive plan for the town centre and that soon all will be revealed.

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