Three thousand new houses, a new bridge over the River Nore, a conference centre, a third-level institution, a youth centre, and the creation of 2,000 jobs - ambitious development plans are on the table for Kilkenny city.
Already a £4 million extension to the Newpark Hotel is being completed this month, and work will start soon on two new hotels.
But does Kilkenny need all this enhancement? Can you improve on what is already a charming medieval centre? Is bigger always better?
Crawling along in the rain through the narrow streets, passing the Castle, Tholsel, Rothe House and St Canice's Cathedral, one can't help noticing the bumper-to-bumper traffic. Maybe there is something to be said for opening things up. "The new Market Cross shopping centre has created a lot more traffic. The days when you could park on High Street and run in and do your shopping are over," says Kathleen Moran, owner of the Kilkenny Design Centre. Kilkenny Corporation has a plan to close High Street to traffic, but issues of parking and alternative traffic routes still have to be resolved.
Meanwhile, two major schemes are being prepared for the city - a revamping of the north-east and a large extension of the west. The aim, says Paddy Donnelly, City and County Manager and driving force behind the proposals, is "to create an apple-shaped city contained within a completed ring road." The Kilkenny Integrated Area Plan 1998-2001 focuses on 70 acres in the north-east and will require an investment of £70 million. The development has the potential, according to the county council, to create 2,000 jobs. McDonagh railway station (which is no longer in use because of a new platform up the line) and its environs have been earmarked to become the Hebron Square Technology Park, with an industrial centre, a hotel, a multi-storey car park, and a technology information centre.
"The hub of the railway station plan is to be an incubation centre for IT businesses," says Tony Walsh, chief executive of Kilkenny County Enterprise Board. Kilkenny secured a £1 million investment from Telecom Eireann through the Information Age town project. There is, says Mr Walsh, a relatively high level of unemployment in the communities nearby, including Hebron Park, Bishop Birch Place, Newpark Close and Ossory Park. A proposed training centre would cater for those who want to develop IT skills. "We are striving to get as many jobs as we can for the people in those communities," says Philip O'Neill, secretary of Kilkenny County Council. In a separate development which also heralds new jobs for Kilkenny, the IDA has acquired a 50-acre industrial park south-east of the city, says Fergus Cronin, chairman of the Kilkenny Industrial Development Company (KIDCo). The aim is to raise the profile of the city as an industrial base. "We are involved in building an advance factory of 25,000 square feet. KIDCo will hold the profits from the factory in trust for the community to invest in further industrial development," Mr Cronin explains. "If Smithwicks (which brews all the Budweiser for Ireland), and the HQ of Avonmore Creameries can choose to be located in Kilkenny, then why not others?" The Mart, meanwhile, will metamorphose into the Kilkenny Commercial Centre, with a youth recreation centre and retail park. A new urban village is planned for John's Green, and St Canice's Psychiatric Hospital will become a conference centre. "We want a renaissance of that whole area, which has a rundown, 19th century look to it," says Paddy Donnelly. But the biggest scheme of all is the Western Environs Draft Action Plan involving the conversion of well over 1000 acres of land into 659 acres of low-density housing (or approximately 3,000 houses for a population of 6,000 to 8,000), 244 acres of open space (including a 48-acre park in the Breagach Valley), with extra space and scope for community facilities.
This massive plan is connected with the proposed Inner Relief Road, stage one of which (the widening of Dean Street) has already been completed. Stage two, which will cost an estimated £2.2 million, will run west from the roundabout at the Waterbarrack to link up with the Callan Road. Stage three (not yet on public display) will run along St Canice's Place and will involve a new bridge over the River Nore.
Oliver Mannion, senior executive road design engineer, says submissions are being received about the proposed road, and stresses that "this is not cast in stone; variations will be implemented if necessary." Just as well, because the Save the Waterbarrack Committee has strong reservations about the plan. "We're slap in the middle of this. They want to run a major road through our basketball and soccer pitch," says local resident Kay Brennan, who believes the plan will ghettoise her community. "If this road goes ahead we'll lose out on our only green space, we'll be completely boxed in by heavy traffic with no provision for a pedestrian crossing. The Butts (the local name for St Canice's parish) is the oldest and is also the highest density local authority estate in Kilkenny." Ms Brennan says 1,500 letters of objection have been sent to the town clerk. "Builders, farmers and property developers were consulted about the Western Environs Plan, but nobody consulted us." That suggestion is rejected by Paddy Donnelly, who says all points of view will be considered.
Con Downey, a founding member of Kilkenny schoolboys soccer, disagrees with the county council's suggestion that the playing pitch should be moved to run parallel with the Breagach River. "This is a ludicrous plan because it will mean that we not only need a referee for children's soccer games, but we will also need a sub-aqua diver to get the balls from the river and a traffic warden to stop lorries while children sprint across the road to fetch balls." Already the residents in the Butts are feeling the effects of the widening of Dean Street, which had led to Butts Green and Lord Edward Street becoming major traffic routes. "The traffic has increased and there is a bottleneck," says Joe Butler, executive manager of St Canice's action committee. The rest of the Western Environs Plan involves two residential neighbourhoods, a park-andride car park, a 60-acre business park and a 40-acre third-level site. The last item is proposed for the site of the Kilcreene Orthopaedic Hospital and is a project dear to the hearts of Kilkenny citizens.
"The one thing Kilkenny misses is the vibrancy of a third-level student population," says Michael Jackson, managing director of Stoneware Jackson, whose pottery business is based in nearby Bennetsbridge. "So far all the third-level investment has gone to Carlow and Waterford." He believes Kilkenny should propose a distinctive third-level niche to reflect its current strengths, such as history, music and art. He points out that the Crafts Council runs a business development skills programme in Kilkenny and recalls the important influence of the now defunct Kilkenny Design training programme.
"A lot of craftspeople have settled in the Kilkenny area since the 1970s and have created a significant industry." Stoneware Jackson employs 100 people in three potteries, a leather workshop, a wax-jacket shop and a retail shop in central Kilkenny.
He is in favour of extending the ring road rather than the proposed inner relief road. "I don't think putting big roads into a medieval town is a good idea. The inner relief road will bring too much traffic into the city."
Mr Jackson sounds a note of caution about the extension of the city to the west. "Kilkenny has a small population, 20,000 at most. If this new development is at all unbalanced it will have a profound and possibly negative effect on the existing structure of the city."
Local architect and Chamber of Commerce member James O'Donoghue points out, however, that there has been a sharp increase in the demand for housing. "This plan will release a lot more land into the housing market."
"Soulless private housing" is what the local branch of An Taisce fears will result. "The whole rezoning of these 1250 acres is a licence to sprawl," it says. Kathleen Moran sums it up: "Our children will live in what we create. The onus is on us to be a little bit cautious about what we do."
A public meeting to discuss the Western Environs Action Plan, hosted by An Taisce, will be held on July 29th in Butler House at 8 p.m.