Review of Kilkenny's Development Plan gets under way with public meeting

Around 60 people attended an information evening at City Hall last Thursday where Kilkenny County Council held an awareness-raising event on the review of the County and City Development Plans for the period 2020-2026.

The purpose of the event, chaired by KCLR’s John Purcell, was to introduce the recently- published Issues Paper, to provide perspectives on some of the issues raised in the document, and to highlight the period for submissions, which runs until 5pm on June 15.

Although not exhaustive, the Issues Paper poses questions on issues such as housing, economic development, retail, settlement patterns, urban design, infrastructure, transportation and tourism.

At the information evening, three local speakers, Brian Tyrrell, responsible for tourism promotion in the County Council, Colm Murray from the Heritage Council and Martin Costello from Murphy Jewellers on High Street, gave their views and outlined challenges and opportunities around tourism, heritage and retail respectively. The aim is to get people thinking and start the conversation around the many issues addressed through the County and City Development Plan process.

The information roadshow will now move on to the Mullinavat Community Centre this evening (Wednesday) at 7.30pm, with a final evening at Ballyragget Community Centre on May 22 at 7.30pm.

Following this round of consultation and consideration of the submissions, a Chief Executive’s report will be issued to councillors. Following consideration of this, a draft plan will be made, which will again initiate a further round of public consultation. A final plan is expected to be made in early 2020.

The Issues Paper can be viewed at County Hall or here.