THE LONG READ: New Tullamore town plan can deliver real and achievable targets
The 2021 Plan was a lost opportunity for Tullamore and contrasts unfavourably with earlier more successful plans
‘IT is Council policy to strategically prioritise the development of Tullamore to underpin its role as a designated Key Town and driver of economic development for the county’.
(Offaly County Development Plan 2021)
Though it was a very worthy policy, the County Plan did not set out a discernible path for its achievement and it is difficult to identify any actual developments that were prioritised on foot of it. On the face of it, the 2021 Plan was a lost opportunity for Tullamore and contrasts unfavourably with earlier more successful plans.
A Real Plan
In 1967 the first plan for Tullamore ran to twenty-one pages. It set out a range of objectives to be achieved including improvements to the water supply, new sewers, widening roads, laying out car parking, providing public parks at Kilbride Street and opposite the Courthouse, turning the technical school into a Town Hall and providing a new school at the Pound bridge. All were delivered within a few years.
From 1967 to 2010 five further statutory plans went on to identify and deliver specific projects including the Lloyd Town Park, the Bypass, the Tanyard to High Street link, new Main Street and Millennium Square, the pedestrian bridges over the Canal, the pedestrianisation of the northern side of O'Connor Square and the introduction of the County Library into it.
The End of an Era
Tullamore Town Council was abolished in 2014 and with it apparently went the prospect of an independent plan for the town. The 2021 County Plan ( which incorporates only a zoning map for the settlement) ran to four hundred and seventy pages but didn’t suggest even one project to be delivered in Tullamore in its lifetime.
The written statement of the Plan was largely a reiteration and regurgitation of all the European, national and regional policies which framed its background, the various environmental and safety legislation it had to abide by and the legislative boundaries imposed upon it. However, it had little or nothing to say about how precisely the future of the county capital might turn out. Most of its technical and legalistic verbiage was applicable to every other county in Ireland also and little of it was Offaly specific. Few of its broad brush long term background expositions translated into any short term deliverable projects.
The Tullamore Town Zoning Map accompanying the Plan simply indicated the areas in which specific uses would be permitted or prohibited. The areas to be reserved for some future roads were indicated. It was no more than a passive device setting out what developers could or could do in general terms and it didn't pretend to be a plan for the future.
The 2010 Plan lapsed in 2016 but was extended to 2021. The unambitious 2021 Plan will lapse next year but its life has now been indefinitely extended and the timetable for a replacement Plan is unknown.Twelve years in which targeted planning objectives might have attracted new funding and investment opportunities benefiting Tullamore have been lost.
Achievable Objectives
Hopefully when a new Plan eventually appears the following realisable initiatives might be included:
Housing
● Build eighty social, affordable and cost rental homes on the Council’s own lands adjoining the Courthouse
● Prepare and initiate plans for a further 1,000 homes within the Southern Residential Neighbourhoods
Traffic and Movement
● Pending the delivery of the N52 Tullamore to Kilbeggan link, initiate traffic management arrangements to facilitate the reopening of Durrow Abbey
● Link the Geashill and Clonminch Roads to give local access to the retail hub at Cloncollog
● Provide the long promised pedestrian link from O’Connor Square to Church Street
● Provide an uninterrupted cycle lane from Arden Heights to the Station Amenities and Tourism
● Provide a boat dock and adjoining public space in the Harbour within two years of the departure of Waterways Ireland to Cappincur
● Complete the pedestrianisation of O’Connor Square
● Incorporate Acres Folly into the Lloyd Town Park and open it to the public
● Initiate an international competition to provide a significant public art work in the town centre and commence a public debate to decide its subject and location.
Employment
● Encourage the development and international promotion of the two Strategic Employment Zones
Built Heritage
● Review the Record of Protected Structures in the light of architectural quality, historic significance, building condition and strategic location
● Identify and adopt appropriate Architectural Conservation Areas and utilise these to promote the urban image of Tullamore
● Prepare and adopt a High Buildings Strategy to give clarity and certainty to future proposals
● Acquire and restore the 18th century Palladian villa on High Street whose design is attributed to Richard Castle and utilise it to enhance the prestige of Tullamore.
Natural Heritage
● Liaise with individual owners and provide incentives to deliver the long promised walkway along the bank of Tullamore River from Church Road bridge to Hidden Bridge
● Identify and protect mature tree groups
● Provide extensive planting along the bypass
Town Centre, Renewal and Retail
● Review and consolidate the extent of the Retail Core Zone and prepare and deliver a public realm strategy to enhance it.
● In association with the owners of the Bridge Centre, provide pedestrian linkage between High Street, Millenium Square and the Lloyd Town Park