Portlaoise has lost out to Athlone which is to be unveiled later as the ‘capital of the midlands’’, according to reports this morning.
Project Ireland 2040 is set to be officially launched later this afternoon in Sligo.
It now appears that Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran will see his hometown get ‘special status’.
Sligo, where the plan is being launched, gets special status as a ‘regional centre’, as does Letterkenny in Co Donegal, along with the midlands town.
The special status for Athlone flies in the face of much commentary, including the view of one urban planner and government advisor who made a strong case for Portlaoise as a designated regional centre when he spoke to LaoisToday.
Dr Brian Hughes noted that the impressive population growth in Laois has seen it enjoy the same aggregate growth as Athlone, Tullamore and Mullingar, the three towns chosen as a gateway under the former Spatial Strategy.
“Everything is evidence based now,” he said, when it comes to planning and Portlaoise has much in its favour. He said Portlaoise is strategically placed close to the M7 and M8 motorways and also has a strong rail network. He said there is a strong necklace of towns which feed into Portlaoise including Mountmellick, Stradbally, Portarlington and Mountrath.
“Because of all these reasons, Portlaoise comes into the winners enclosure, rather than the losers enclosure,” he said when it comes to the possibility of being designated a city status, resulting in greater investment in infrastructure.
“There are very positive indicators on how Portlaoise is faring in relation to other towns,” he said.
Portlaoise was also overlooked in the previous, and now scrapped, National Spatial Strategy, which designated Athlone/Tullamore/Mullingar as the ATM regional hub, which was to be earmarked for development.
Snub
Renua Ireland says it is particularly surprised by the snubbing of Portlaoise despite its status as one of Ireland’s fastest growing towns and strategic location.
“We had hoped today’s plan would represent a new way of doing things,” Cllr John Leahy said.
“Instead it appears to represent a bad case of Decentralisation II minus the ‘Parlon country’ signs,” he said.
“Instead, the Midlands under this administration appears to be a case of ‘welcome to Boxer country’ and meanwhile the rest of us can go whistle for proper hospital, health and housing services and only dream of such basic fundamentals as hi-speed broadband, while 11,500 commuters from Laois will unfortunately see nothing in this plan which will bring them home for work anytime soon,” Cllr Leahy said.
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