Final plans for new city ‘town’ ready by year end

Work is well advanced on the city-controlled side of the Ardaun Draft Plan, although the adjoining County Council adjoining segment of the project has been ‘long fingered’.

City Council Director of Services, Tom Connell, told the Galway City Tribune that a lot of design and planning work was currently under way to form the basis for the Ardaun Draft Plan by the year end.

“The strategy, the plan and the design must be in place to have this ambitious project ready for lift-off when the economic conditions are right.

“The key thinking from a City Council point of view is that this will be a plan driven and designed by the local authority – whenever development does start, it will be our plan that the developers will have to work with, not one of their own making,” said Tom Connell.

He outlined that over the past two years or so, work had been ongoing in six main areas, that would lead to the final Draft Plan being produced by the end of 2013. “Of course, a development such as this will not happen overnight. Such projects do requires years of planning and preparation but we are confident that over the next 10 to 15 years that Ardaun will become a reality,” Mr Connell said.

“All one has to do is to look at where the city can develop. There is very little scope for any further development on the western fringe of the city while most of our big industries are also on the east side of the city.

“The obvious place to cater for the future population demands of a growing city is on the east side. It would be remiss of us as a city not to have our plans in place for this development when the economic conditions at some future date will allow it to become a reality,” said Tom Connell.

For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.