Plan will transform Bridgetown
BRIDGETOWN, in the past a poor relation in terms of investment in its services, is to be transformed over the next few years as a joint community and council plan is formulated and comes to fruition.
‘It will be a marathon not a sprint,’ said Cllr Ger Carthy, one of the local representatives who attended a well-attended meeting Bridgetown Vocational College called to listen to local people’s ideas about what they needed most in Bridgetown and how best the develop a village which badly needs investment and services.
Cllr Mick Roche, who has and and still is championing the cause of Bridgetown whenever he has the opportunity, praised the local community for completely altering the public image of their village and making it a prime location to live and do business over the past few years.
‘Bridgetown is a large village, more like a small town than a regular village when you take into account the population and area it services,’ said the Sinn Fein member.
‘Increasingly it is a place that people want to live, raise families and do business and that is down to the hard work and determination of the local community. Many people wrote this village off a few years ago but now it is one of the fastest-growing and strongest areas in County Wexford.’
A large number of local people turned out for the meeting which included ideas out forward for greenways and walkways along the canal, playgrounds, carparks and community centres and traffic calming measures.
‘As a councillor, I look forward to continuing to work with local groups and Wexford County Council to make this area a thriving centre of commerce, tourism and employment, as well as a safe place to live and raise a family,’ said Cllr Roche.
Callr Carthy said the people of Bridgetown were very proud of their village and their identity, but appropriate services had never been put in place and they were necessary to enhance the area.
‘With the assistance of the county council and the WWETB all things are possiblem,’ he said, praising the role of Cllr Roche in promoting the Bridgetown agenda.
He said once the ideas were taken on board a plan would be put forward for public consultation before going to design stage and then being put to Wexford borough district where ‘it will have the full support of all the members’.
As part of proposals to improve the village, Cllr Carthy said he recently attended a meeting which included Fr Denis Doyle, as a representative of the Kilmore parish, and the county council’s chief executive Tom Enright about securing four acres of land in Bridgetown to enable the extension of the college as well as providing a location for a community playground and park.