Much dereliction in our towns and villages, but also glimmers of hope
And No Villages Around And Post Derelict Grass With Longer Or Them, Closed Have Number Shops, Many Striking Pubs, Petrol And Of Pumps Weeds Growing Also Often Is The Offices, Donal Hickey:
Travelling around the country during the holiday season, worsening dereliction in towns and villages caught the eye, though glimmers of hope are offered by refurbished buildings in a few cases and Government schemes should help.
Many reasons are given for this decline, and our planning system over the past half-century has had a lot to do with it.
Numerous town centre businesses have closed because of the development of out-of-town shopping centres and the opening of supermarkets on the edge of towns. Many villages no longer have shops, post offices, or petrol pumps.
Unsurprisingly, well-known County Clare priest Fr Harry Bohan recently raised concerns about the effects a proposed discount supermarket would have on existing businesses in the small town of Sixmilebridge.
The number of closed and often derelict pubs, with weeds and grass growing around them, is also striking, though planning can’t be blamed for that. A planning exemption for people who want to convert shutdown pubs to housing should help.
Around 2,000 pubs countrywide have closed in the last 20 years, the drinks industry says, and 30% of hostelries in Cork city and county have finally called ‘time’.
Towns and villages with lots of abandoned buildings have gone also backwards because people have forsaken them to live in the surrounding countryside which is peppered with one-off houses.
A practical example of the effects of all this is that formerly weak GAA clubs on the periphery of towns are now thriving, whilst once-strong GAA clubs in towns are starting to struggle because of a population shift.
The Government has numerous schemes to regenerate places, such as the latest programme for 26 rural towns, including Sixmilebridge, Skibbereen, County Cork, Kenmare, County Kerry, and Abbeyfeale, County Limerick.
It will help areas pursue projects like redeveloping derelict sites, creating community parks and walkways, preserving historical landmarks and boosting tourism.
Each town now has a regeneration officer whose role it is to implement the plan in cooperation with the community.
In the first phase of the scheme, each received funding to create a Town Centre First plan. Some of these places already have attractive town squares, green spaces, historic buildings and rivers flowing through them, like the Ilen in Skibbereen, which give huge potential.
Campaigning in West Cork during the recent elections to the European Parliament, MEP Billy Kelleher was struck by the number of properties in towns, villages and the countryside that remain derelict, or vacant.
He called for dedicated ‘derelict housing swat teams’, like those in operation in the US, to speed up the process of purchasing houses and other buildings left vacant by absentee, or disinterested, property owners.