Have your say on the draft Roscrea Town Centre First Masterplan

After considerable fieldwork and well attended public consultations where the community had an input, the draft Town Centre First Masterplan for Roscrea is now ready for public review.

The plan is a blueprint for an approach to how the town centre can be transformed into a dynamic meeting place with a strong economic role.

The document will be available to download from Tipperary County Council’s website until May 24 and a hard copy is available in the town library.

To provide the community of Roscrea with another chance to input into the Masterplan, following a very successful public consultation process in March, two in-person information sessions on the draft document will take place next week.

Both will be held on May 24 in the Black Mills. The afternoon session starts at 2pm and the evening session starts at 6.30pm. with each session expected to last approximately an hour and a half.

Brian King, Town Champion is encouraging members of the public to attend one of the public workshops.

“As we reach an important step in mapping out our vision and objectives for the regeneration of Roscrea, the Town Team, the Local Authority, and O’Mahony Pike consultants have taken the feedback received at the earlier public consultation sessions in March on board and incorporated it into the draft plan.”

“We want the community to see the progress made to date in creating a new plan for Roscrea and provide them with another opportunity to input into the process at the Black Mills,” he said.

Áine Mc Carthy, Town Regeneration Officer with Tipperary County Council, has praised the coordinated and comprehensive work of the Town Team in Roscrea to support the delivery of a draft plan.

She said: “it is a clear sign that the Town Centre First plan can be driven by the local community while supported by the Local Authority and other important stakeholders such as the OPW and local businesses.

“A collaborative vision, and plan led approach is critical. We hope that the plan will act as a catalyst in revitalising and rejuvenating Roscrea and tackle head on the challenges, as well as making the most of the opportunities identified,” she said.

Once feedback is collated on the latest draft, the final Masterplan is expected to be completed by the end of June. Members of the public can view the draft Masterplan on the Council’s website by visiting tipperarycoco.ie/roscreatowncentrefirstplan and they can provide feedback about the document until May 28 at the workshops, or by sending ay comments to amy.corbett@kpmg.ie or posted to Amy Corbett, KPMG, 1 Stokes Place, St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2.

Roscrea is one of 26 towns across the country that has received funding to develop a Town Centre First Masterplan which aims to map out future development, focus on tackling dereliction and vacant properties, and make the town centre a more attractive place to live, work, socialise and run a business.

This initiative aims to help re-imagine and revitalise rural communities as part of the National Town Centre First Policy.