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This proposed regeneration plan is to be welcomed and highly commended. The core of Carlow town has visibly deteriorated over the past decade or so. It has been characterised by ‘dough nut’ development where the core of the town centre has been hollowed out. There are numerous reasons for this, some structural, but it has been facilitated by poor or misguided planning decisions by the local authority. Furthermore, the streetscape across the entire town is pockmarked by dereliction; some poor quality developments in terms of design and materials; some notable building developments of a scale that are incongruous to their surroundings; and a failure by some owners to maintain the appearance of their property. For balance, it should be noted some high quality work including those at Carlow College and the town park / flood relief works deserve commendation. However, Carlow as a town which enjoys positive features as listed in the consultation prospectus, has a built environment that less than the sum of its parts and is punching well below its weight in certain aspects as a result.

Some elements of the proposal are commendable in the scale of their ambition including: greater (new) linkages across parts of the town; centerpiece public realm design elements; reducing the primacy of the car; greater greening of the urban spaces and a focus on brownfield regeneration of the town centre.

This strategy is absolutely correct in that it seeks to place coherent urban planning and design as the anchor for development, rather than ad hoc speculative developer-driven interventions. What should be clear – as is the case in any town or city that is well planned and pleasant to live in – is development will need to adhere to the overall planning and design framework and consistently play by these rules – rather than the other way around. The documentation mentions the lessons learnt from other successful urban centres - that the long term goals underpinning any initiative such as this need to be implemented consistently, and that continuity is vital – the key to successfully realising any plan. Accordingly, the Carlow local authorities should seek to engage suitably qualified architectural or urban planning staff to underpin this initiative, otherwise the impetus and quality of implementation will invariably wane.

By doing so over time, a virtuous circle will be created and Carlow can become an increasingly interesting and vibrant place for people to choose to live there, generating all kinds of positive social and economic externalities. It is striking that the population in the economically critically 20-34 cohort has declined to the extent that it has during the last census period.

To conclude, the local authority and interested stakeholders are to be congratulated on having the vision and ambition to prepare such a planning and regenerative framework which has been informed by best practise elsewhere. If adopted and implemented, this has the potential to be transformative.

Regards

Brendan O'Leary

Project Carlow 2040: A Vision for Regeneration - Submissions

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