Callan LAP Submission

This submission addresses a number of the wider issues raised in the excellent “Issues Paper” introducing the Consultation for the updated LAP. Within that wider context, it proposes several specific areas and potential projects that could fall within the new Area Plan.

Vision, Policies and Key Objectives

In an overall Vision for development in Callan, addressing key Planning factors of; Economic Development, Heritage, Infrastructure, Land Use and Zoning, it is difficult to imagine that one or a few major developments will transform the town. More likely, modest changes that can alter the dynamics of social and economic life in the town will create modest opportunities for innovative trends that will attract positive development in the town and its immediate area.

One of the most surprising and positive reflections of life in Callan is the rapid increase of population: from 1225 in 1996 to 2475 in 2016 means the town has doubled in human scale in 20 years, with further growth anticipated.

Without having done detailed analysis, it is clear that a substantial part of this increased population is the arrival of people who are new to the town and different to the traditional population. This diversity has interesting potential and covers a range of people;

• people from a wide variety of other nationalities and ethnic backgrounds.

• People actively involved in the “creative economy”. Following from the lead of KCAT and the Tony O’Malley residency, a growing number of arts practitioners live and work in the town.

• With both L’Arche and Camphill communities active in the town, there has been a growth of people with disabilities and those who support them. These people bring with them a strong commitment to Inclusion.

These Social Inclusion approaches extend to other sectors that might have experienced themselves as “marginalised”; new ethnic groups, elderly, LGBTQ, youth, Travellers. It all adds up to a recognition that Callan has become a diverse and lively community, perhaps in spite of itself. A centuries old tradition of social conflict could evolve into a town that embraces the world-recognised trend that the enjoyment, celebration and cultivation of diversity is connected to prosperity, both economic and social.

Over several years, and following from cross-cutting work done with Camphill Callan, the Callan Community Network and the Kilkenny Leader Partnership, a wide proposal for a vision of Callan as an “Inclusion Town” emerged. This vision combines local projects and programmes that put an emphasis on a wide view of inclusion – as it potentially refers to elderly, youth, low-income, ethnic and cultural difference, gender and sexual orientation, disability. Perhaps the spirit of this approach to Welcome is better expressed by cultivating a Celebrate Diversity attitude than putting an emphasis on “marginalisation” of particular sectors of people.

This vision toward inclusive approaches and making a virtue of diversity in local terms extended to a tourism strategy based on the principle that there are people involved in inclusion programmes all over Europe and the world. In former times, those people might not have been holiday makers or foreign visitors, through poverty or as a consequence of their exclusion. In a new century, all of those people will be enabled to travel from home and may do so through networked initiatives for inclusion. For Callan, or any other town, to promote itself as positively accessible and actually actively welcoming to people with notable “diversities”

Rather than addressing all of the categories addressed in the Issues Paper, this submission will focus on two areas of the town that could be seen as zones in which new approaches could be piloted for expansion after an initial phase of development.

Specific Proposals:

• Community Development processes toward an integrated and Inclusive Town Vision

• Measures to enhance accessibility in all public places, both indoors and outdoors

• Development of universally accessible toilet and washing facilities to make Callan attractive and accessible to tourists with mobility issues.

Workhouse Integrated Civic Zone

The original six acre site of the Workhouse ( the wall is in tact on three sides and partially in tact on the fourth) now includes:

• Kilkenny County Council Area Office

• Kilkenny County Council Fire Station

• Kilkenny County Council Water Tower

• Two privately owned homes

• Canon Kennedy Court, includes seven chalets for elderly people operated by Callan Community Voluntary Housing

• Prologue Housing Estate of the Kilkenny County Council

• The remaining land and all of the original Workhouse buildings are in the ownership of the Camphill Communities of Ireland. Planning permission has been granted to renovate and extend the western area of the buildings, and a separate application has achieved Permission for a seven dwelling “inclusive neighbourhood” in the orchard area at the east of the site. In between the original dormitory wing is the working location for the Callan Workhouse Union, an arts and public realm consultant. In the recent past, there has been Planning Permission for a Primary Care centre with a shared entrance and car park, along with less developed proposals for a Creative Hub/Co-Working Space, a Rehabilitation and Therapy Centre, a Heritage Study Centre and a Re-Visioned Library and Learning Hub.

• A petrol station and convenience store in private ownership.

There is a clear potential within the overall site for development of a demonstration project for social inclusion, blending mixed tenure residential capacity with a variety of civic, creative, heritage, educational, enterprise, arts and recreational purposes. A re-visioning of the architectural/landscape features of the area was undertaken in the participative Mapestry project promoted by the Workhouse Union in 2013 and reference to the project was made in the Three Sisters Capital of Culture bid in 2016. A sensitive approach, involving active participation of all stakeholders on the site, could realise a high quality design for an inclusive and dynamic demonstration of how traditional and largely unplanned development can be transformed for the times ahead.

Specific Proposal: A Facilitated Participative Planning process engaging all residents and stakeholders, with an emphasis on a creative input, to Re-Imagine the original site as a Demonstration Project of Inclusive Planning

The King’s River (Abhainn Rí) Corridor – embracing Abbey Meadow – Mill Lane Car Park – KCAT Art and Study Centre – Mill Race Hostel and Café (planned) – Friary Complex – Bridge Streets, both Upper and Lower – Tony O’Malley Home and Studio – Callan Cultural Trail – Fennelly’s Café – Moat Fields Nature and Heritage Trail – Westcourt Demesne House and Gardens – the Mill Race -- and the ecology of the King’s River itself

The King’s River, running from west to east through the heart of Callan, links a string of connected landscapes and built environments that are central to the heritage and identity of the town. Through many layers of heritage and a complex riverbank ecology, a neglected and outdated zone could become a feature of modern environmental engineering and accessibility from the Abbey Meadow to the Westcourt House walled garden and beyond. Upper Bridge St., now deeply scarred by vacancies and semi-dereliction, can also be seen as a zone for re-imagining and development in a future not dominated by car traffic. Lower Bridge St. has suffered much less but has recently lost two family shops – only Keogh’s Model Bakery, Hourigan’s pub and Hennessy’s garage survive as trading businesses after two family run shops closed in recent times.

Specific Proposals:

• Environmental improvements to the natural life of the King’s River

• Enhanced access from the town environment to a linear Green Zone linking the Abbey Meadow, Moat Fields and Westcourt House along the King’s River

• Incentives for new and existing retail trading opportunities

• Improved Traffic Management, including consideration of pedestrianisation of Bridge St.

• Creation of a landscaped “Town Square” area in the current Mill Lane Car Park

• A new plan for the restoration and enhancement of the Mill Race

Housing – as a key element in both zones

A key element in both of these zones would be an innovative and inclusive approach to housing. Commercial housing development has begun again in Callan in the familiar pattern of peripheral estates of semi-detached and detached family homes. The town centre requires other formats. The granting of permission for and imminent development of the innovative “Inclusive Neighbourhoods” of the Nimble Spaces project suggest a different pattern that could be adapted to suit many people in Callan. Smaller mixed tenure clusters, blending publicly funded and privately owned homes and apartments, could be developed on unused sites close to the centre of the town. These could be multi-generational, integrating typical families with residents with a range of support needs, reducing social isolation and stratification and increasing town centre vitality. A similar approach could also be taken to unused or derelict buildings.

Specific proposals:

• Innovative Planning measures that favour mixed tenure and inclusive housing development

• Research and development on financial instruments that facilitate mixed tenure (publicly funded housing integrated with private development)

• Incentives for “Living over the Shop” developments

• Incentives for refurbishment of derelict buildings for residential capacity

Overall, this submission wishes to express that there are the seeds of positive development already germinating in Callan. Innovative and creative approaches, blending multi-ethnic cultural vitality with Citizenship based approaches to inclusion of people with a wide variety of support needs can combine in a spirit of Celebrating Difference to generate social and economic prosperity.

Callan Local Area Plan 2019 - Pre-draft consultation process - Submissions

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