To Whom It Concerns,

Many parts of the plan for Urlingford are exciting and encouraging.

The loop walk..excellent idea

The car park to facilitate the hall and access to street for shopping..again excellent idea.

a town park...yes

The street plan with improved paths, lighting, landscaping and seating...all welcome and encouraging.

But our own weaknesses still remain.

From the plan no mention of an industrial area with an increase of employment for skilled and semi skilled workers. All green spaces have been filled in with more housing.

From the data in your survey, Urlingford has a deprived settlement score of 10 which leaves us in the bottom 4% in the county. This is a worrying trend with regard to going forward.

Unemployment 17% ...double the national average

Professional jobs 20% ..national average 34%

Housing owner occupied 54% ....this is 14% below national average

Rented houses 43% ...16% below national average

Social housing 20% ...over double national average of 9%

Maybe in the long term a plan should include maybe an Education and Training center to help upskill our unemployed to break the cycle that we are presently in.

Archerstown in Thurles is nearest and is a 35 minute walk from the square in Thurles, that's if present bus times allow you to attend classes.

Surely it's obvious from these statistics that we need more local employment.

Why has no provision been made in a long term plan to facilitate an area for a large employer to build a factory, after all we are just off the motorway. Can the IDA be brought on board to encourage a big employer to set up here.

Worrying again is that we have now been changed to the Tipperary electoral area...we have no local representative...what will happen to us now going forward?

On a more personal level, we have the following concerns

We live on the Main Street in Urlingford. Where will we park our cars? If the on Street Parking is reduced, we have to go to Lumper lane as it is. Parking here is restricted also as people working in the town park here all day.

At present Lumper Lane is two way traffic with parking on both sides. It is very narrow and people park up on the path to create space for delivery lorries to get down. When they are delivering to the businesses and homes, the road is blocked for the time to unload or fill an oil tank in one of the houses.

The plan is to divert traffic at school times down this route along with all traffic from new housing development on Lumper lane, this will all increase traffic exiting onto Main Street. Lorries etc cannot enter from Main Street to Lumper Lane as swing is too difficult and people park on the road. I see some difficulties with the present plan and the residents on Main Street and Lumper Lane will have to be included in any proposed upgrades to this area. Out of the houses between Doyles pub and New Road, 7 of the houses have families living in them, and most have restricted back access, so even the logistics of coming home with a boot full of groceries and few children can turn into a nightmare to navigate as it is presently.

Other concerns

Traffic calming...needed badly especially Togher road....a monitor should be placed here to collect data on the speed coming in. A lot of elderly residents have had near misses with the speed down the road to the corner, the present calming has had little effect.

Broadband??? or lack of fibre .. .available at both ends of the town but not to businesses and residents of Main Street....why is it so impossible to install this..

Level of Street...the Main Street has been retarred many times, its almost concave. Try to park outside Urlingford Arms B&B...the car door keeps slamming back onto you such is the incline on the road. The gathering of water has increased on this side, drains are always blocked...this needs immediate attention.

The plan has some good merits and will greatly improve the town for all living here.

Its a long term plan and as such provision should be made for more

health care facilities...what happened to plans for a Primary Health Center...not one mention in the plan.

Going forward care need to be taken to encourage people to buy homes here, work here, send children to school here, grow old here.

Providing housing infill to the extent of your plan without the services in place for an increasing population will continue to impact on the worrying statistics that you outlined in the plan.

Deprived Area Score 10

DEIS primary school

20% Social housing

Please help us to have a socio-economic balanced thriving town that we can be proud of.

Draft Urlingford Town Centre Masterplan - Submissions

Primary tabs