Major step forward on eagerly awaited Tullamore projects

Two multi-million euro projects, The Harbour Masterplan and the Tullamore Regeneration Project, both of which have been in the pipeline for some time, have taken a significant step forward with the announcement that public consultation is set to take place in June on both proposals.

The plans contain ''high level aspirations'' for the town and will ''set in train potential for a lot of other projects.'' director of Services, Tom Shanahan said at a presentation to members of Tullamore Municipal District at the May meeting.

Members of the public will be invited to view the plans and make their own submissions when they go on public display from June 10 to July 8. An open day for stakeholders will be held within that time frame.

Mr Shanahan reminded members that the plans are guiding documents and any individual project within the documents will be subject to further public consultation. They are not cast completely in stone,'' he said.

As regards the Harbour Masterplan, Mr Shannon pointed out that the harbour is owned by Waterways Ireland. ''They are the key stakeholders and decision makers in terms of what will happen. They have gone through a process in private themselves in terms of looking at a potential framework for the development of the Harbour site. That's just complete now, they will bring this to public consultation in parallel with the regeneration framework.''

He said the plans and concepts are reliant on funding under the URDF (Urban Regeneration and Development Fund) which is subject to gate approvals, which ''can be a drawn out process. But we will get through it,'' he added.

In addition plans are at an advanced stage for the O'Connor Square to Church Street link. This will go through the former Scanlon surgery on Church Street. ''We expect to go to Part 8 in Q3 of this year.'' Mr Shanahan said.

Meanwhile Senior Executive Engineer, John Connelly said it is hoped to begin work on the Tanyard to High Street link in June.

Councillor Neil Feighery welcomed the news. ''It's good to see that we will have public consultations. I do hope that the people and businesses in the town engage with it in a meaningful way. A lot of these plans will be dependent on the continuation of strong economic performance and we are able to fund these projects because these will be multi-million euro projects. They are very exciting plans for the town that I'm sure over the coming years the next council will be in a position to deliver on them.''

Councillor Sean O'Brien, said it was really exciting for the town, but a big challenge as well. ''The High St to Tanyard link will take place very soon.That's vital because the choking up of O'Connor Square with traffic is a daily problem and getting worse. Hopefully that will go a long way to sorting it out,''he said. ''The Harbour plan is the one we are most excited about, that is the one that's going to be the new Tullamore. It will involve Waterways Ireland it will be huge.''

Councillor Tony McCormack, said Councillors are getting mixed views about the town on the doorstep when canvassing. ''When we look at the streetscape, we don't have a variety of shops and there are shop units that are empty. The population of the town is growing the whole time, we can see that by the number of housing estates that are being built, so we need to have this vision for the town. The harbour plan is a game changer, using the same name as in Dublin, 'The Grand Canal Dock' in Tullamore and we hope we can get business in and get people to live in the area,'' he said