'It will take a lot of good will' Laois town to get Town Centre First Plan

Mountmellick has been announced as one of 26 Irish towns to get a lifesaving boost to tackle dereliction and vacancy.

The Laois town is following in Rathdowney's footsteps to get a bespoke Town Centre First plan, to be driven by a new Town Team formed of local people and the Regeneration Officer at Laois County Council. 

The town is getting €30,000 in funding towards the cost of writing the plan, and once written, it can be used to apply for multiple grants.

An initial public consultation period has just ended, with one of the biggest issues highlighted by locals being the lack of an N80 bypass.

Traffic on a recent weekday in Mountmellick town centre. Photo: Leinster Express

Among the submissions given to Laois County Council planners, was a joint one by local traders, including the owner of a longstanding boutique.

Margaret Bradford is proprietor of Number One ladies boutique for more than 40 years and was active for many of them as part of Mountmellick Traders Group.

She spoke to the Leinster Express / Laois Live, welcoming the new strategy to revive Mountmellick.

"It's great to hear some movement. You do need the council at the backbone, to give support and awareness for what grants are available. 

"Myself and other traders have given a submission to the plan on what we would like to see. Hopefully we will become part of the town team, the more the merrier.

"It will take a lot of good will and help and hopefully something will develop. In fairness to the county manager, though I hear he is retiring, he has been very helpful and has gone out to meet people," Ms Bradford said.

The draft plan will be published in spring, followed by more public consultation. The final plan will be adopted by September 2024."

The Laois Town Regeneration Officer Denise Rainey told the Leinster Express more. 

"The plan will set out the blueprint for the development of Mountmellick over the next 10 years. The plan will set out the vision for the town and what is different about this plan from other plans is that it puts the local community at the centre of the process.  

"It will be the Town Team who will be deciding the vision for the Town and what projects they want included in the town centre first plan. It is an exciting process for the Town and something I am really looking forward to supporting them with.

She explains why it is needed. 

"Mountmellick like a lot of other towns around the Country has experienced a decline in the number of businesses in its town centre. Similarly it is experiencing high levels of vacancy and dereliction.

"The Town Centre First Plan will ensure that there is a strategic and coherent approach at local level to tackling vacancy and dereliction in the town centre and it will also look at developing projects to regenerate the town centre," the officer said.

A Mountmellick town team has almost now been formed.

"The town team is currently being formed and hope to have their first meeting in March. The plan will take approximately 14-18 months to complete.

"Different sectoral groups- business, community, residents, sports are being asked to nominate a representative for the Town Team and at this stage we have most of the representatives confirmed," she said.

She gave an update on Rathdowney which launched its Town Centre First Plan in December 2023.

"The Rathdowney town team are working very hard to secure funding to enable them to implement some of the transformative projects contained in the TCF plan for Rathdowney. They have also made a lot of improvements at local level which include improvements in street lighting, new street furniture, introduction of an incentive scheme for businesses to locate in the town centre (in cooperation with Laois County Council and Laois Chamber) and are liaising closely with the local authority to seek action on vacant and derelict buildings."

The 208 page report written by KPMG consultants was funded with a €100,000 grant. It analysed Rathdowney's positives and negatives and came up with ideas to improve the town, tackling issues like the 50% commercial vacancy rate, public transport, amenities and heritage buildings. 

On February 29, the Minister for Rural and Community Development, Heather Humphreys TD, and Minister of State with responsibility for Local Government and Planning, Kieran O’Donnell TD formally published the first ever Town Centre First plans for 26 towns in every county, including the one for Rathdowney. 

They also announced the next 26, including Mountmellick.

“I am delighted to publish the first ever Town Centre First Plans today and I want to commend the local Communities and Town Teams for their work in developing these comprehensive locally-led plans.

“I am pleased to also announce the next 26 successful towns across the country who we will support with funding of €30,000 each to complete a comprehensive town plan to help develop their town centres,” Minister Humphreys said.

The Plans are developed in consultation with local communities to represent the vision of local people for their area and contain proposals for a diverse range of projects such as redeveloping derelict sites, creating community parks and walkways, boosting SME and tourism potential, and protecting historical landmarks. 

The Ministers were joined at the Launch by the new Town Regeneration Officers who have been appointed in every Local Authority to drive implementation of the new plans with the support of Government funding through the Rural Regeneration and Development Fund, the Urban Regeneration and Development Fund, the Town and Village Renewal Scheme, the Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant, European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), Town Centre First Heritage Revival (THRIVE) Scheme and the Historic Towns Initiative.

Launched in 2022, Town Centre First is driving one of the biggest ever programme of investments in rural Ireland and has a core aim of confronting dereliction and the general decline in the health of Ireland’s town centres. 

To find out more about the initiative and how communities can become involved, visit www.towncentrefirst.ie