A new ‘Town Centre First’ policy is set to empower local communities across Donegal to rejuvenate their local towns and villages.
Moville, Burtonport and Carrigart and other towns are set to benefit from the initiative which focuses on reopening vacant and derelict buildings and unused lands.
Michael White, Chairperson of the Green Party Donegal said the approach will bring life and vibrancy into towns across the country.
Mr White said: “With the launch of this policy today, the Greens are delivering on a key Programme for Government commitment to develop a Town Centre First policy. The scheme is modelled on a scheme developed by the Scottish Government, and was tested in the recent Town Centre Living pilot project.
“This policy sets out new supports to help local communities drive their own plans to bring life back to their towns. We’ll see new structures being established and supported at local level, with funding to be provided by central government.
“I’m delighted to see that a Town Regeneration Officer will be appointed to Donegal County Council to help train and support a ‘Town Team’, made up of local stakeholders such as residents, businesses and community groups. These Town Teams will develop a ‘Town Centre First’ plan for towns like Moville, Burtonport and Carrigart and our local authority staff will be on hand to support this work.
“The ‘one-stop-shop’ approach in Local Authorities will make it easy for businesses and residents to access supports for building adaptations and renovations, and much like Tidy Towns, the awards programme for Town Teams will really help to incentivise people to get on board.”
A Town Centre First approach revitalises and regenerates towns by bringing vacant and derelict buildings back into use and creating new opportunities for unused lands that will encourage more people to live and work within our rural towns and villages.
In addition to quality housing and job opportunities, this approach also ensures that good transport links, safe and accessible public spaces, and climate resilience is at the heart of how we plan our towns.
According to Michael White, “This approach gives the people of towns across Donegal an opportunity to shape the future of their town, and to influence decision making on things like heritage, how we plan the town going forward, and how we tackle issues like vacancy and dereliction.
“From a Green perspective, this also helps Donegal communities to put climate action, sustainable mobility, and regeneration of our public and green spaces at the heart of their Town Centres First plans”.
Speaking at the Moate launch of the Town Centre First policy, Green Party Minister of State with responsibility for Heritage and Electoral Reform, Malcolm Noonan TD stated; “I’m delighted to launch the Town Centre First policy today with Minister Humphreys and Minister Burke. This is an important step towards empowering our communities to create towns and villages we want to live in and be proud of. Architecturally, culturally and socially, the Irish town is unique in European terms. For far too long, we have turned our backs on this important heritage.”
