Phoenix: An attraction of scale for Waterford?

Darragh Murphy reported on this month's plenary council meeting, where CEO Sean McKeown said a "visitor attraction of scale" was being progressed for Waterford city. 

The attraction would be located on the north side of the River Suir and would be integral to Fáilte Ireland's overall tourism strategy for the county. Nothing has yet been decided and no budget seems to be on offer, but the ambition is for a landmark development to transform Waterford’s tourism offering and elevate the region’s international profile.

Why not? The playbook on these developments is well known. A call for tenders from suitably experienced consultant companies, looking for ideas, will issue. A company will be selected. Consultations far and wide, with local, national and international business interests, and various stakeholders, will happen. 

A design will be accepted and construction may eventually commence, with the chances of success in the lap of the gods. 

People will have heard of the hugely successful Guggenheim in Bilbao or the Titanic in Belfast. Who would have thought that Tayto Park in Meath or Centre Parc in Longford would succeed? 

Locals will remind you that Celtworld in Tramore did not. It is really hard to predict success and longevity, Bilbao is a magnificent city and Belfast has that frisson of “the troubles” about it. Sometimes, intangibles help.

City councils everywhere are searching for the add-on, which changes perception and attracts tourist spending. Tourism supports local retail and hospitality businesses and enables a city or town to retain and support facilities, which would otherwise be impossible. 

That change is not easy.

Waterford city really hasn’t had a tourist profile. At its zenith, Waterford Glass attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors annually. They generally arrived at 6.00pm, walked up and down the Quay as shops and restaurants were closing, returned to their hotel, bussed to the factory in the morning and then departed. 

The knock-on into general tourism in the city was minimal despite Waterford’s international name recognition. 

The underlying reason was the dereliction, decay and neglect, which was everywhere in the city. 

Anyone who tells you otherwise wears rose coloured glasses. We were profligate with our ancient monuments and historic streetscapes. State investment and support was negligible. Demolition of historic fabric was commonplace and often unchallenged by officialdom, but we consoled ourselves with factory life. 

While industry and commerce are vital, success often depends on a balance between all aspects of modern city life.

Have we a developed understanding of what constitutes tourism product? 

No flower or garden blooms without preparation. The same analogy applies to tourism and visitor attractions. 

Will we commit millions to something on the North Quays, while the Ardree Hotel lies derelict, in the hope that the historic city will attract people across the Suir to see trees growing from the chimneys of the GPO on the south quays? 

We must do better. 

Those who pass along The Mall can see that Waterford Treasures Museums are slowly but surely attracting substantial visitor numbers. Waterford Crystal is doing the same. The Viking Triangle, with its complement of museums and carefully restored buildings, has imprinted the idea of an attractive “old town” on visitors and locals alike. 

The latter group being often the most difficult to convince! 

Without the herculean efforts of Eamon McEneaney, his staff and a team of community volunteers over the past 30 years, allied to the support of council CEO Michael Walsh, this would not have happened. 

Private donors have been prepared to fund museums and associated development in the Clock Museum, Silver Museum and in the Children’s Centre, being planned at 18 Lady Lane. Private sector and community involvement are crucial.

An attraction of scale with city-wide impact should require the removal of the ESB pylons across the river at Bilberry and decanting of ESB Gracedieu hardware out of the city. 

A Bilberry cliff-top park accessible by steps (some already exist) and elevator from the Greenway could connect, by cable gondola, as across the Rhine in Cologne, to the top of Mount Misery above the Ardree and thence down to the North Quays where it would connect with the New Ross Greenway. 

The Ardree should be demolished and the surrounding land turned into a park. This would exploit Waterford’s unique topography, with the River Suir running between two steep hills as it passes the city quays.

Bolting on a new attraction cannot ignore the issues and challenges affecting the city at present. To be serious about it, the corollary requires the city centre to be properly dealt with by public and private sectors. 

New lighting should be installed across the historic city and all overhead wiring put underground. Paving and street surfaces should be immaculate. Dereliction should simply be anathema. 

The area around New Street, Stephen Street, Browne’s Lane and Back Lane looks as if it’s recovering from WW2. It must be possible to develop housing or a hotel there. How is the New Street multi-storey car park abandoned while people are complaining about car parking? 

Similarly with the Graves site on Park Road or the Powers Seeds building on the Dunmore Road, are they to be left fallow and undeveloped forever? 

Jenkins Lane and Spring Gardens both contain important historic sections of the city walls, yet both areas are terribly prosaic with sheds built against the city wall or ugly surface car parking. 

Could we put a Padel Tennis court in the Racquet Court building there to enliven the area? 

Our council has done great work across the city, but should a surface car park in Exchange Street be tolerated for 20 years and 20 failed planning permissions? Delay in council project execution, as at Parade Quay, kills initiative.

Meanwhile, look at the back of the Railway Square development, past which all traffic outbound from the city is now directed. The building is about 15 years old. There is no excuse for its grubby, uncared for condition. Simple TLC would transform it. 

It highlights the differential between private spending and council investment. As long as that tension and deficit remains, the equation around an attraction of scale and who actually benefits from its development remains problematic. We need unity of purpose.