THE AGENCIES overseeing Limerick’s regeneration have agreed a new building plan, which they say would create at least 4,500 jobs and halve the cost of the State project.
The plan, which will be submitted to Government this week for approval, says regeneration would cost the exchequer €924 million, rather than the €1.6 billion originally.
Limerick Regeneration Agencies has also proposed implementing the flagship building project over a 15-year timeframe, rather than 10 years, to accommodate pressure on the public purse.
Phase one, which runs from July 1st, 2010, to December 31st, 2014, includes plans for 24 separate projects including the construction of two roads improving access to the Moyross and Southill estates, a new community centre in Moyross and housing schemes in all four regeneration estates.
A second phase, running from 2015 to 2020, proposes building a new Garda station in Moyross, a sports centre in St Mary’s Park and a library in Southill. A third phase of development running until 2025 is contingent on attracting private funds, it says.
Work on the first houses would begin this year under the draft plan, which has been drawn up following recognition that the State cannot afford to implement the 2008 master plan and disillusionment over delays to regeneration.
“The masterplan was unveiled at a time when the national economy was slipping rapidly into a deep recession, so it was inevitable that the following months into and during 2009 would bring significant uncertainty,” says the new implementation plan agreed yesterday by the board of the Limerick Regeneration Agencies.
Some of the most ambitious proposals in the 2008 masterplan – a train station and town centre for Moyross and regional parks are not now expected to be delivered in the 15-year plan.
There is also a recognition in the plan that some of the 2,400 houses initially pinpointed for demolition will now be refurbished instead of rebuilt.
John Fitzgerald, chairman of Limerick Regeneration Agencies, says in the draft plan, which has been seen by The Irish Times, that serious criminality has been reduced in Limerick and estates are becoming more stable. But he also warns there are still major problems on the housing estates, where residents experience “a bleak physical environment and ongoing intimidation and fear and they are now losing hope”.
He says the plan’s €60 million cost every year over 15 years is not a “handout” but a recoverable investment in Limerick.
“The regeneration programme is now at a crossroads. We need to choose the road of full implementation or we fail another generation and dash the hopes of people who dared to hope that things could get better,” he says.
The agencies’ new building plan says delivery of the first phase alone would create 4,500 jobs and deliver €109.2 million in employment income to the area.