Ambitious council strategy aims to put Mallow front and centre
PLAN PROVIDES A NEW BLUEPRINT FOR THE REVITALISTION OF MALLOW TOWN
AN ambitious new Cork County Council plan aimed at enhancing the image of Mallow Town and its offering to both locals and visitors been given the full backing of local councillors.
Senior council executive engineer, Mary Hayes gave the councillors a detailed analysis of the Mallow Town Centre Improvement Strategy at the April meeting of the Kanturk/Mallow Municipal District Committee.
“As you are all aware towns and villages across County Cork have experienced particular challenges, many arising from the economic situation, in recent times. The Commission for the Economic Development of Rural Areas (CEDRA) also identified social and economic changes that arose from societal transformation,” said Ms Hayes.
“This presentation is looking at a positive approach to improving Mallow town centre. Mallow is the first town in Cork to launch such a strategy and I think other towns will follow that lead,” she added.
Outlining the strategy Ms Hayes said it would focus on eight key themes, the details of which can be found in the adjoining blue panels.
“These themes are quite wide-ranging and show the level of work and commitment that Cork County Council’s Kanturk/ Mallow Municipal Committee provides to the area,” said Ms Hayes.
She said this commitment was mirrored at full council level by the establishment of the Municipal District Operations and Rural Development Directorate, which gives a “specific and renewed focus on improving towns centres.”
“The strategy for Mallow Town builds on the support provided by the Directorate through initiatives such as the Town Development Fund and the Village Enhancement Scheme,” said Ms Hayes.
She said that for the strategy to be successful it also needed the backing the citizens of Mallow and North Cork and interest groups such Mallow Chamber, retailers and business owners and Tidy Towns.
“A lot of what is contained within this strategy can be achieved through working with people. It’s not all relying on budgets and funding. I think it is important that message gets across,” she added.
“The key priorities for 2017 are improving citizen engagement, improving the towns appearance and finally improving what Mallow town has to offer,” said Ms Hayes.
The Council’s Divisional Manager (North), James Fogarty, said the strategy showed the council’s recognition of the need for a “clear roadmap in setting a future vision for Mallow”.
“It will allow us to work together to bring investment to Mallow, revitalise the town centre and project a positive image giving confidence to investors, businesses and the local community,” said Mr Fogarty.
The strategy was given a warm welcome by district councillors, with committee chair Cllr Bernard Moynihan (FF) congratulating Ms Hayes and council officials for compiling the strategy document.
Cllr Timmy Collins (Ind) said the results of its implementation would be “fantastic” for Mallow with knock-on benefits for the entire Kanturk/Mallow Municipal District.
Cllr John Paul O’Shea (Ind) described the strategy as a “positive step” for Mallow and Cllr Gearóid Murphy (FF) saying he hoped it would get a “good buy-in” from the people of Mallow and the local business community.
Cllr Gerard Murphy (FG) said it was a very impressive submission and that it would be “silly not to support it”.
However, he did sound a note of caution saying that while it was important the district had “a centre of excellence”, it was equally important that this did come at a cost to funding budgets for other smaller towns and villages on the Kanturk/Mallow area.
“We have to bring places like Kanturk, Millstreet, Newmarket and Kiskeam along with Mallow. We will have to ensure that any available funding is spread reasonably well across the district,” he said.