Center Parcs Resort for Longford

everybodyhas1

Graham wrote: »

You said yourself, it's in progress. There is nothing in the history of Centre Parcs construction projects to suggest they will not finish the job so I'm struggling to see what your issue is.

I wrote progress in inverted commas. They will finish the job. That's not the point. The point, which you so struggle to see, is that Centre Parcs is not just confined to the public land they have bought from future generations, it's tendrils have reached much further. Centre Parcs have been granted the use of other public lands, of which they are destroying the natural, picturesque beauty. I do not agree that the countryside should be paved and have tar mac poured over it in this way. The nuances of what makes a place unique are taken away leaving a sterile shadow of its former beauty. I believe these tourists would prefer to see the genuine ireland they have paid to visit.

Graham

everybodyhas1 wrote: »

I wrote progress in inverted commas. They will finish the job. That's not the point. The point, which you so struggle to see, is that Centre Parcs is not just confined to the public land they have bought from future generations, it's tendrils have reached much further. Centre Parcs have been granted the use of other public lands, of which they are destroying the natural, picturesque beauty. I do not agree that the countryside should be paved and have tar mac poured over it in this way. The nuances of what makes a place unique are taken away leaving a sterile shadow of its former beauty. I believe these tourists would prefer to see the genuine ireland they have paid to visit.

The majority of it wasn't public land.

The majority of tourists are expected to be 'genuine' Irish people. I can guarantee the majority of those would never consider Longford as a holiday destination but for Centre Parcs.

Dublinhurler

The land was going to be cleared over the next couple of years. So if centre Parcs didn't cut down the trees put in tar Mac drive trucks on paths someone else would have.

You say tourists would prefer to see these trees and the beautiful scenery, there is still a shed load of trees there for them to look at and walk around. If tourists were wanting to see them trees why have they not come to longford over the last 10 years to see them. Centre Parcs is going to bring more tourists to this county than anything else. It's going to create huge employment.

If the people of longford came together they could come up with ideas to get these tourists into all the other parts of longford.

everybodyhas1

I agree that the forest was not enjoyed to its fullest. Many locals only ventured in after the announcements & more still did not know where it was or had never heard of it previously. The forest should have been better promoted .
The mature trees would have been harvested, but clearly those quoting this from another users previous post don't understand that the whole forest is not made up compleatly of trees for harvesting. It has a huge amount of native Irish trees which would have remained. To say that the trees would have been cut & Coillte pack up & leave is plain ridiculous. So naive.
You all have dollar signs in your eyes. You can sell sell sell all your natural amenities, but where's the quality of life at the end of it all?
It's not all about the bottom of a balance sheet.

Graham

everybodyhas1 wrote: »

You all have dollar signs in your eyes. You can sell sell sell all your natural amenities, but where's the quality of life at the end of it all?
It's not all about the bottom of a balance sheet.

There's close on a thousand people who will soon be employed that otherwise may not be. Ask them if a job or a few alternative trees is going to have the biggest impact on their quality of life.

everybodyhas1

Graham wrote: »

There's close on a thousand people who will soon be employed that otherwise may not be. Ask them if a job or a few alternative trees is going to have the biggest impact on their quality of life.

I understand what you're saying Graham, and I'm sure a lot of people would think Centre Parcs will be favourable, but what I'm saying is that they are are short sighted about what it is that gives quality to life. I am also aware of older local people who are afraid to speak out and voice their concerns about the impact of this venture on the county.

lawred2

everybodyhas1 wrote: »

I understand what you're saying Graham, and I'm sure a lot of people would think Centre Parcs will be favourable, but what I'm saying is that they are are short sighted about what it is that gives quality to life. I am also aware of older local people who are afraid to speak out and voice their concerns about the impact of this venture on the county.

Have you spoken to such people? What concerns have they voiced to you that they are afraid to publicly voice?

cherryghost

You know there was a public council meeting to voice these opinions before it was approved. At the meeting nobody spoke up against the proposals. If you weren't there you didnt make yourself informed of the situation, its well past the stage now and its going ahead whether you like it or not.

As someone who lived in Longford for 10 years, I've seen the county at its high point and swallowed whole. I had to leave the county because I could not find a job anywhere. My personal take for Centreparcs is only a highly positive one. Not only to create jobs within the resort itself but the knock-on effect should revive the county again.

All that being said I'd be very interested in the progress made via photo progression.

arkrow

Have family near to it so know it fairly well, often went down and ran the perimeter 4 times and never met a sinner so it was completely wasted on the locals, very few used it. If it wasn't for Bertie trying to get it for nothing I doubt Centre Parcs would have ever found out about it but considering what he had planned for it if it had to go, centre p was the lesser evil.

I can't see 1000 people needed to serve a maximum 2500 guests unless it's gonna be 15 hour contracts or the like. And they're no good.

The new public perimeter path is well on, if they built it any closer to the abbeyshrule road off the R392 people would have ended up on on the road, it's right beside it! I haven't seen the plans, the path must be on it, I'm surprised locals didn't push for that to be moved in a little bit.

Actually heres a plan for it, 40 metre buffer zone...I'd have to get out my measureing tape...



The car park section has been cleared of trees already.





They're expecting people to spend up to 9 grand for a week in the place when it's finished.

They have a longford section on the centre parcs site now.

TooObvious

Agree with Arkrow above. My brother and I have regularly ran this section of the forest and have rarely come across others, like other posters have said people only became aware of the forest after the announcement of CentreParcs. Indeed, most visitors actually visit the forest on the opposite side of the river, which already had paths cut through it.

A point was made earlier on about the canal being destroyed? The paving of the Abbeyshrule - Ballymahon section of the canal is part of an overall project to make all of the Royal Canal more accessible. I have cycled the canal from Dublin to Ballymahon in the past and would note that the completion of this route (Kildare need to get the finger out) will result in more people enjoying the canal than ever before - including tourists.

That's my opinion, and sure everybodyhas1 of them.

arkrow

TooObvious wrote: »

Agree with Arkrow above. My brother and I have regularly ran this section of the forest and have rarely come across others, like other posters have said people only became aware of the forest after the announcement of CentreParcs. Indeed, most visitors actually visit the forest on the opposite side of the river, which already had paths cut through it.

Caked in dog sh1te over there now since they cleared and re-pebbled it. Dogs should be banned.

TooObvious wrote: »

A point was made earlier on about the canal being destroyed? The paving of the Abbeyshrule - Ballymahon section of the canal is part of an overall project to make all of the Royal Canal more accessible. I have cycled the canal from Dublin to Ballymahon in the past and would note that the completion of this route (Kildare need to get the finger out) will result in more people enjoying the canal than ever before - including tourists.

That's my opinion, and sure everybodyhas1 of them.

Yea, canal work is seperate and on going a long time, good and bad cuz of aforementioned dog sh1t all over the place. Centre parcs have future plans to join up the forest with the canal.

TooObvious

arkrow wrote: »

Caked in dog sh1te over there now since they cleared and re-pebbled it. Dogs should be banned.

Yea, canal work is seperate and on going a long time, good and bad cuz of aforementioned dog sh1t all over the place. Centre parcs have future plans to join up the forest with the canal.

Agree with you on the above!

road_high

Centre parcs sell themselves on their surroundings and a nice environment. It's not in their business to destroy nice forests.,

nice_guy80

road_high wrote: »

Centre parcs sell themselves on their surroundings and a nice environment. It's not in their business to destroy nice forests.,

pity, cause they're digging up a perfectly mature wood at the moment

there's been a lot of fly tipping on the abbeyshrule road since the fencing went up.
I do agree the perimeter path is very close to the external boundary

arkrow

nice_guy80 wrote: »

pity, cause they're digging up a perfectly mature wood at the moment

Yea, the carpark bit that they've cleared was the nicer natural bit of the forest, not the nasty commercial stuff, they fecked that up rightly. Surly they could've planned that better.

nice_guy80 wrote: »

there's been a lot of fly tipping on the abbeyshrule road since the fencing went up.
I do agree the perimeter path is very close to the external boundary

Yea, somebody ain't happy. It was worse a month back when I was down last, it's been cleaned up abit.

Some company is gonna do well outta this road budget.

‘Realising our Rural Potential’, what a crock of sh1te.

hondar

contract awarded to roadbridge.

arkrow

hondar wrote: »

contract awarded to roadbridge.

http://www.westmeathexaminer.ie/news/roundup/articles/2017/02/23/4135503-center-parcs-infrastructure-work-to-begin-in-may/

indeq

The new public walk is fairly poor, the stones under foot are to big, should be pebbles, as mentioned earlier in thread, they didn't honour the 40 metre buffer zone, very close to road on one side, nearly out in a field another side. I was having a look at work reviews online, seems to be an pretty bad company to work for.

nice_guy80

heard 200 trees came down in the storm on Monday

Kuva

Has it's own website now

https://www.centerparcs.ie/

nice_guy80

they've done a good job on the road out to the Mullingar road

nice_guy80

gas pipeline from Athlone gone out to tender

800 lads starting work on the chalets

Kuva

12% I think of the forest they said they were gonna cut...looks like 60-70%? Doesn't look like it can be replanted either.

Accidentally

Kuva wrote: »

12% I think of the forest they said they were gonna cut...looks like 60-70%? Doesn't look like it can be replanted either.

The photographs only show part of Newcastle Woods. It's not great, but not half as bad as it looks. On the plus side there's a huge amount of forestry planted in the area in the last 15 years, including deciduous, so there's easily an increase in coverage.

Whatever they do, it'll never come close to the sins of Bord na Mona

Kuva

Accidentally wrote: »

The photographs only show part of Newcastle Woods. It's not great, but not half as bad as it looks. On the plus side there's a huge amount of forestry planted in the area in the last 15 years, including deciduous, so there's easily an increase in coverage.

Whatever they do, it'll never come close to the sins of Bord na Mona

The rest of Newcastle woods that we don't see in the pic would just be the bit on the other side of the river that they didn't buy. Now, the path didn't stick to the plans, to close to road on one side, pretty much outside the forest for most of the back end, more trees gone than should be...you just know now if you go in there they're sticking to nothing.

Accidentally

Kuva wrote: »

Accidentally wrote: »

The photographs only show part of Newcastle Woods. It's not great, but not half as bad as it looks. On the plus side there's a huge amount of forestry planted in the area in the last 15 years, including deciduous, so there's easily an increase in coverage.

Whatever they do, it'll never come close to the sins of Bord na Mona

The rest of Newcastle woods that we don't see in the pic would just be the bit on the other side of the river that they didn't buy. Now, the path didn't stick to the plans, to close to road on one side, pretty much outside the forest for most of the back end, more trees gone than should be...you just know now if you go in there they're sticking to nothing.

There are still large areas by Newcastle House and to the north and south, so no it's not just the area on the other side of the Inny. I'm not going to get too protective over what they've removed as most of it was commercial conifers which wolud have been clear felled and was quite frankly, muck.

As I said, there's lots of new forestry planted in the area, and most of it is a lot more environmentally valuable than what is being removed at Newcastle Woods.

JupiterKid

Great to see actual physical progress being made on this major development.

It will bring in much needed revenue and jobs to the midlands and Longford. This is the biggest single development ever to happen in Longford and yet there are those out there who are begrudging and whinging about it. Pathetic!

Look at the positives and not the negatives. Because the former vastly outweighs the latter.

nice_guy80

any more recent overhead shots?

a lot of the groundwork will have been covered by grass now

marvin80

JupiterKid wrote: »

Great to see actual physical progress being made on this major development.

It will bring in much needed revenue and jobs to the midlands and Longford. This is the biggest single development ever to happen in Longford and yet there are those out there who are begrudging and whinging about it. Pathetic!

Look at the positives and not the negatives. Because the former vastly outweighs the latter.

Hopefully it'll be a massive success.

1000+ jobs - amazing for Longford

Kuva

How do people think it will do in the long term?

They didn't build it all so even they are not sure?
Job reviews on Indeed are mostly awful, doesn't seem like a nice place to work.