Writes Ciaran Dineen
It has been revealed that both Crosshaven and Passage West are set to undergo planning Framework Plans, using consultants appointed by Cork County Council.
The news came at last month’s meeting of the Carrigaline Municipal District (MD), where it was announced that €10,000 and €20,000 will be provided through the TFD (Town Discretionary Budget) for plans to be developed in Crosshaven and Passage West respectively.
Such plans are classed as non-statutory and include Masterplans, Framework Plans and Area Action Plans (AAP) that the Council can look to develop alongside the more formal Local Area Plans (LAPs) and the County Development Plan. These plans can vary in scope but typically provide a detailed framework for the area, identifying land uses, urban design principles, actions, physical and social infrastructure.
According to Senior Executive Officer, Nicola Radley, Cork County Council have recently completed a process of revieing potential towns and villages across the county for which a framework concept would be prepared. Discussions have been had with the Forward-Planning Unit and are set to include information relevant to the County Development Plan and Local Area Plans, and will include material on urban capacity analysis, employment base, commuter patterns and socio-economic analysis.
The aim of the framework plans is to identify key challenges for the towns with the hope of developing a strategy through town regeneration and renewal to address these issues.
This would be done with the goal of creating a better sense of place, to increase footfall and economic well-being.
There have been some reservations to this announcement, particularly with respect to Passage West, given that SECAD, through Cork County Council published an in-depth Strategic Plan for the town in December 2017, which saw great collaboration with local community groups and individuals. However, Councillors were assured by the Executive Officer that any plan would be very mindful of previous reports and would look to utilise useful information provided in them.
Speaking to The Carrigdhoun Newspaper, Councillor D’Alton said, “we had a significant and valuable piece of planning work done with SECAD in recent years, incorporating considerable community input. The framework plan will build on that, update the town goals and streamline urban planning goals generally across the county so that Cork County Council can be as funding-ready as possible.”
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