Phoenix: Direction of Travel

Most people look forward to a New Year with a sense of hope and positivity. There are many, many challenges on the international scene, but Ireland Inc., seems to be sailing along quite nicely, thank you. 

Unemployment is low, growth prospects are good and the government is in a sound financial position. 

As ever, events can change things in a very short period of time, but we hope and pray for the best. The big challenge, in almost every city, is setting targets and achieving goals. 

What does Waterford need to do to improve the quality of life, business and commerce? Resources and leadership, as ever, are vital as is an honest understanding of where we currently stand.

You may have read reports that the directly elected mayor of Limerick, former secretary general of the Department of Finance, John Moran, wrote to Taoiseach Simon Harris suggesting that €2bn of the Apple Tax money should be given to Limerick, €3.5bn to Cork and €2bn to Waterford. In a lengthy letter and submission to the Taoiseach in September, Mr. Moran said this would help rebalance the country's economy which was "dangerously concentrated in the east". 

The amount sought underlines the extent of the problem. It would be easy enough to spend €2 billion in Waterford. It would represent approximately 10 North Quay projects. For example, if SETU Waterford is to compete in the university sector it needs at least €300m. UHW has had many small projects of up to €10m each. The Dunmore Wing cost something like €35m. In reality our Model 4 hospital needs an injection of about €300m to bring it to parity with its eight national Model 4 counterparts.

The cost of the proposed new engineering building at SETU Cork Road has not been disclosed, but at 12,800sqm, there won’t be much change out of €80/90m. This kind of money enables SETU Waterford to play catch up on two decades of massive underinvestment. 

New buildings and student accommodation are needed on the old glass factory site and a further expansion of courses is essential to create a university of scale and substance that this city needs. 

It is time that a proposal/strategy for a new medical school in Waterford, affiliated to UHW, was developed, perhaps starting with postgraduate entry as UL did; all the component parts already exist. Why should it be thus far and no further for us? It might cost €100m but so what? That’s half a North Quay. That kind of cash has been splashed liberally around other universities in Ireland over the past two decades.

We live in a lovely historic city, but our city centre needs a whole heap of public and private TLC. There has been a huge focus on the North Quays, to the detriment of the historic city centre. Street lighting and utility poles in many centre city streets are antiquated. Clumps of on street overhead wires disfigure beautiful buildings like St Catherine’s Hall in Catherine Street. Private sector ugliness like the old petrol station canopy on the Quay and the wreckage of the Power Seeds building on the Dunmore Road persist. Litter control is at a reasonable standard, but general maintenance is irregular. 

The People’s Park is forlorn, despite a beautiful new fountain, with only perfunctory maintenance in evidence. Flowers are forever absent. No one in council loves it and real TLC is non-existent, despite what councillors say. 

The Mall looked wonderful for Winterval, but elsewhere, maintenance of the Christmas lights was hit and miss. White and yellow traffic lining on many city streets has almost been erased. 

Electric parking signage does not work. 

Council departments work in individual project silos, with no overarching plan. Who cares? Who is actually in charge of the city? We need someone senior, designated by city management, to lead and deliver the TLC it so badly needs. 

Potholes are ubiquitous. Road surfaces in some areas are Dickensian. Footpaths are cracked and broken. Parnell Street has terrible rusty utility poles and overhead wires, as do parts of O’Connell Street and Thomas Street. The magnificent GPO building on the quays is in shameful condition with vegetation apparent across all its roof cornice. What does the OPW maintain in Waterford anyway?

Does a council register exist, which delineates what work needs to be done, on a street-by-street basis, to bring the city centre up to European levels of presentation? 

How long will massive holes in the urban fabric in Jenkin’s Lane, Rose Lane, Back Lane, Browne’s Lane, Stephen’s Street, New Street, the surface car park in Exchange Street, empty for 25 years, or the Graves site on Park Road continue? 

We build houses in Ballygunner and Kilbarry, three miles from the city centre, while fully serviced city centre sites sit idle for decades. 

Indifferent planning has developed the Cork Road from Manor Street to the Outer Ring effectively as an American-style strip mall with buildings set back from the street frontage to facilitate car parking. Single-storey buildings are allowed, instead of having two or three floors of apartments overhead, as happens in most other European countries. 

The decision to damage Thomas Street by the insertion of a small pocket park into a terrace of buildings rather than moving 100 metres up the street to develop a proper urban space/park in front of the Forum Theatre is mind-boggling in its lack of respect for urban fabric and an historic streetscape.

There are huge demands on council to deliver housing and deal with derelict properties to bring them back into use. Much good work has been done but an overarching plan for the city is missing. 

I fear for example, that the magnificent Mount Congreve estate, which should be maintained by the OPW, will be a money pit, diverting money from the presentation of the city. 

The city is our economic driver. We are in an urban beauty competition for new business, retail, hotels, tourism, industry and everything else, and face huge challenges from regional and national urban areas. History has shown us we have no guarantee of our place in the Irish urban rankings. We must do better.

Mr. Moran is probably right about the €2 billion!