The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
THERE will be planning applications next year for two major projects involving retail, office and housing in Ennis town centre.
Briefing councillors this week, chief operating officer of Ennis 2040 Kevin Corrigan said it is intended, between office and large retail, to develop about 5,000 square metres of space, including more than 50 apartments.
Mr Corrigan, outlining a number of masterplans, claimed significant progress is likely to come in the next two years.
“We’ll be lodging two planning applications for town centre sites in 2023, so between office and large retail we intend to develop about 5,000 square metres of space, 50+ apartments,” he told county council members.
“The funding models are still being developed, we’re hoping the construction will start after it goes through planning in 2024,” he added.
“We’ll be doing a masterplan next year for the Post Office field and we’re hoping to commence construction in 2024 or 2025.”
Restating some of Ennis 2040’s purposes Mr Corrigan said, “The strategic objectives are for Ennis to be a location for investment, for it to be Ireland’s first climate adaptive town and for it to be an accessible place of quality and to be Ireland’s first ten-minute town.”
Regarding some of the specific projects, his presentation showed that a Masterplan for the Abbey Riverside area is set to be completed this month, with public consultation set to happen early next year.
A Masterplan for Harvey’s Quay has just been completed, while environmental surveys on the Post Office field were completed in the summer.
Clare County Council has almost completed a Masterplan for the so-called Roche Opportunity site.
Regarding the site of the former Ennis National School Mr Corrigan said, “That’s obviously a private sector project, planning has been lodged for additional car parking on the site and there’s another planning application to come in the near future.”
Shortly after he addressed the members they voted to sell the Ballymaley Enterprise and Innovation Centre to Viatlograph, and he said that could have a major impact on the local economy.
“Ballymaley, you’ll see as you’re voting on it later, if you’re happy to sell that building it has the potential for 72 jobs and major investment for a local indigenous multinational company in Ennis. It’ll be worth about €37 million over ten years to the town.”
He said that Ennis 2040 acquired a site on Francis Street “which was going to auction in July, we bought that through Clare County Council.”
Efforts are being made to get the views of younger people on the future of the town.
“We’ve started a TY (Transition Year) project with the secondary schools in Ennis where we’re looking at sustainability and what their vision is for a sustainable future for Ennis 2040.
“It’s a 12-week programme, we’re doing lots of surveys and we’re just kicking that off now. It’s kind of our first stakeholder consultation and we’re delighted to be doing it, because it’s a demographic that’s not consulted too often on the future of the town but obviously the decisions we’re making will affect them disproportionately compared to ourselves.”
Owen Ryan
Owen Ryan has been a journalist with the Clare Champion since 2007, having previously worked for a number of other regional titles in Limerick, Galway and Cork.
