New public park for Waterford progresses
Stock image.
A new park within Kilcaragh is currently being developed by Waterford Council.
The plans propose to include a plaza area, paths, a play space with several play structures and park art.
A report on the development issued by Waterford Council last week outlined that engagement with local school children was recently carried out to determine what the park should provide.
Local children identified they would like to ‘walk and scoot’, with the report stating that the path network within the park should facilitate this.
All the children also identified an active play element as a preference, that being monkey bars, zip line and climbing structures.
Additionally, the school children referred to the park area as Ballygunner and not Kilcaragh. This prompted Cllr Adam Wyse to suggest in the council chamber last week that a competition be held to promote the input from local children in officially naming the park.
Also at this month's Metropolitan Council meeting, Cllrs Seamus Ryan and Mary Roche commended the Council in tackling vacancy and dereliction.
Both councillors also said however, that more still needs to be done.
Cllr Mary Roche said that buildings that are not vacant also need to be looked at.
“Following up from the city centre stakeholders meeting last week, one of the things that arose from that was building standards” she said.
“There are a lot of buildings that aren’t abandoned and aren’t vacant, but they are in very poor condition.”
Cllr Roche enquired about the possibility of developing bye laws to enforce presentation standards on building facades.
Cllr Seamus Ryan added that there are still a high quantity of boarded up building in the city.
“Over the summer a lot of us have been out doing a lot of work doing canvassing," he said. "The one thing that came up in the Waterford south area is the number of boarded up houses in the city. I know as a housing office we’ve done great work with dealing with this, but it’s still a big issue.”
Responding to the news that Amgen are to move production to Dublin, Cllr Donal Barry said this week: “This is bad news for the employees if a buyer is not found and for Waterford, as that company was expected to create another 350 jobs in Waterford."
He requested that the council support finding a buyer for the site.
“Why is production leaving Waterford and not the opposite, why didn’t they decide to bring production to Waterford? I think we’re going to see more of this” he said.
“I request that the mayor write to IDA Ireland to do all they can to get a buyer for the site, save jobs there and push on more industries to be located in Waterford city and county," he added.
Waterford Council Director of Services, Michael Quinn responded: “We will liaise with the IDA as our primary contact and also check with Amgen themselves to get a better understanding on the issue and the decision.”
