BREAKING: What the Government's 20-year plan for the country says about Athlone
The Government's new plan to develop the country over the next 20 years identifies Athlone as the 'key regional centre' of the midlands.
However, it stops short of designating Athlone for either city status or as official capital centre of the midlands, but does clearly identify the town as the key growth area for the midlands region.
And it identifies the need for a co-ordinated strategy for Athlone to be developed, both at a local and regional level, to secure investment and grow the area.
The plan in principle allows the population of Athlone, Sligo, Letterkenny, Drogheda and Dundalk to grow by at least 30% in the next 20 years.
However, the exact extent by which these towns can grow is not laid down in the new National Planning Framework. Instead, the growth levels are to be agreed through special Regional Spatial and Economic Strategies to be drawn up by regional assemblies (little known regional organisations comprising councillors from local authorities in those areas).
One of the policy objectives from the new plan.
The national plan aims to target the five cities of Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford for 50% of overall national growth up to 2040 with Ireland’s large and smaller towns, villages and rural areas accommodating the other 50% of growth.
However, it recognises that the influence of these five cities does not extend to all parts of Ireland, in particular the North-Western and Midland regions.
“It is critical that those regions also are served by accessible centres of employment and services that can be a focal point for investment and have the widest possible regional influence. On the basis of available evidence, it is apparent that Sligo in the North-West and Athlone in the Midlands, fulfil these roles to a greater extent than elsewhere.”
The plan includes 75 objectives, two of which refer to Athlone
National Policy Objective 2b refers to “The regional roles of Athlone in the Midlands, Sligo and Letterkenny in the North-West and the Letterkenny-Derry and Drogheda-Dundalk-Newry cross-border networks will be identified and supported in the relevant Regional Spatial and Economic Strategy. “
Whilst National Policy Objective 7 refers to “Strengthening Ireland’s overall urban structure, particularly in the Northern and Western and Midland Regions, to include the regional centres of Sligo and Letterkenny in the North-West, Athlone in the Midlands and cross-border networks focused on the Letterkenny-Derry North-West Gateway Initiative and Drogheda-Dundalk-Newry on the Dublin-Belfast corridor.”
In the section on the midlands region, the plan says: “Due to strategic location and scale of population, employment and services, Athlone has an influence that extends to part of all three Regional Assembly areas. Given the importance of regional interdependencies, it will be necessary to prepare a co-ordinated strategy for Athlone at both regional and town level, to ensure that the town and environs has the capacity to grow sustainably and to secure investment, as the key regional centre in the Midlands.”
Athlone's influence on the country's three region, Eastern and Midlands, Northern and Western, and Southern was referred to on a number of occasions in the plan.
There is a requirement, the plan says, for the western region to ensure that Athlone and its environs can grow sustainably and secure investment as the key regional centre in the Midlands, extending into parts of Galway and Roscommon.
And it says there should be a more effective planning for regionally strategic places, like Athlone, in economic and employment, transport, education and public service delivery and retailing terms.