Incentives for Main Street living on the way

_Kaiser_

Not 2 weeks in the job and we have this idea from the new Minister for Rural Development, Heather Humphreys:

Incentives are to be offered to first-time buyers to live in the centre of rural towns, according to the new Rural Development Minister.
Minister Heather Humphreys said the initiative is aimed at getting young couples to live "on the main street" rather than on the outskirts of provincial towns.
The plans include grants and the re-allocation of retail properties as residential zones.

Complete nonsense IMO. Have a wander down any main street this morning and you'll find it littered with fast food remnants, beer bottles and cans and of course the pervasive smell of urine from every corner.

Not to mention how much fun it is trying to get (kids) to sleep when the noise of the drunken antics from the local pub are filling the room - to say nothing of the shouting and singing after closing time.

If this is HH's answer then she clearly didn't understand the question.

zl1whqvjs75cdy

Immediate problem will be parking. Want us to live in the sticks? Fine but we'll need two cars and if we live above a shop on the main street where will we park?

eezipc

I think this is a good idea. I'd say the towns she is referring to are not the kind of towns that are full of fast food joints. There are many towns around the country that are almost empty. For example, around my area there is Dunmore in Galway & Ballinlough in Roscommon. Potentially these are really nice towns but have been left deserted.
I see you can buy a 3 bed house in Dunmore for 30k.
http://www.connachtpropertyauction.ie/properties/71c184ecc89e4b9e9bd9e1304ab9d465.html
Needs a bit of work but it's incredibly cheap.
If you talk to the older generation, they will tell you that Dunmore used to be a great town years ago. It's a pity that these towns have been deserted, mainly because of a lack of work opportunity.

OfflerCrocGod

They aren't talking about Dublin 1, more like towns with population in the low K's ranges. Probably cheaper to offer them modern services than if everyone is spread out 5 Kms from each other.

eezipc

Broadband is important for jobs.
For example, I work in Galway city for a software company. There is no need for this company to be based in Galway city. If there was proper broadband around the country, companies like this could easily set up in small towns across the country.

StupidLikeAFox

_Kaiser_ wrote: »

Not 2 weeks in the job and we have this idea from the new Minister for Rural Development, Heather Humphreys:

Complete nonsense IMO. Have a wander down any main street this morning and you'll find it littered with fast food remnants, beer bottles and cans and of course the pervasive smell of urine from every corner.

Not to mention how much fun it is trying to get (kids) to sleep when the noise of the drunken antics from the local pub are filling the room - to say nothing of the shouting and singing after closing time.

If this is HH's answer then she clearly didn't understand the question.

I disagree. This is trying to encourage younger people, or people living on their own, to live in towns over shops etc, and free up higher quality houses and apartments which are in the suburbs for families. It also brings more life to rural town centres which are drastically falling away.

This was a core part of the strategy employed by Westport a number of years ago when they sat down to try and turn the town around - it is now a really vibrant town for locals and tourists

L1011

_Kaiser_ wrote: »

Complete nonsense IMO. Have a wander down any main street this morning and you'll find it littered with fast food remnants, beer bottles and cans and of course the pervasive smell of urine from every corner.

Not to mention how much fun it is trying to get (kids) to sleep when the noise of the drunken antics from the local pub are filling the room - to say nothing of the shouting and singing after closing time.

Crap licencing laws that result in single kickout times and all the associated issues with them can also be fixed.

_Kaiser_

StupidLikeAFox wrote: »

I disagree. This is trying to encourage younger people, or people living on their own, to live in towns over shops etc, and free up higher quality houses and apartments which are in the suburbs for families. It also brings more life to rural town centres which are drastically falling away.

This was a core part of the strategy employed by Westport a number of years ago when they sat down to try and turn the town around - it is now a really vibrant town for locals and tourists

I'm not convinced. I know of a property in exactly this scenario.. parking is a mess as you constantly have shoppers taking the spots, sound insulation is very poor and you have constant traffic and pedestrians outside your window during the day, and drunken eejits roaring and singing and dropping/smashing glasses or bottles as they stumble home at night, there's no space to do anything unless you are content not to set foot outside the door, and it's certainly not child or family friendly.

Whatever about renting such a place short-term, why on earth would you buy a "lower quality" property in such a place - unless it was solely as an investment to rent out?

Mrs OBumble

As someone who lives over a shop in a side street just off a main street, I can assure you that it's not nonsense, and it does a lot to regenerate areas.

Yes, there needs to be street cleaning. I'm in a city, so the council do it. In smaller places where it's not feasible for the council, then it should be the responsibility of the businesses whose patrons make the mess. Probably a very good way of getting them to be more responsibile in their serving policies, including insisting that patrons must be toilet trained.

As the number of child-free households increases, the number of people for whom main-street living it suitable is also growing.

draiochtanois

This post has been deleted.

eezipc

draiochtanois wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

It's a site with issues such as:

A derelict building
Adjoining buildings
c. 16 km from Tuam Town, c. 17km from Ballyhainus and c. 26km from Claremorris ie centrally located in the middle of nowhere
And it's bids from 29,950[/quote]
I don't understand your point.
It does not say anything about being derelict. One persons derelict is another persons renovation.
Dunmore is most definitely in the middle of nowhere..... :angel:
Bids from 29,950. I bought my house from this website and bids tend not to go much higher than starting price.

It's going off the point a bit though. I was only giving that as an example of something that could be bought cheaply. Then if a grant was given to renovate, it could be a nice place to live.

MrMorooka

If you want rural towns to survive, people need to actually live in them, so that they have a critical mass of people such that it makes sense to locate businesses/services in those towns. This is a good move.

newacc2015

eezipc wrote: »

Broadband is important for jobs.
For example, I work in Galway city for a software company. There is no need for this company to be based in Galway city. If there was proper broadband around the country, companies like this could easily set up in small towns across the country.

If I was a young German moving from Berlin to a job in Ireland. The last place I want to live is Ballynowhere in the west. People actually want to live in a city and the lifestyle it offers. Look at all the Dubliners who could in a cheap commuter town. But instead pay twice the price for a small house, as they want to live in the city.

Putting jobs in a place is one thing. Where someone wants to move from Dublin to a town of 5k is a different story

The_Conductor

Incentives- presumably financial incentives- to live on 'Main Street' simply is throwing cash to the wind. What people want are access to facilities and amenities- alongside good services- such as fast broadband- and local jobs such that buying what people expect to be a cheap house- doesn't mean you have a 90 minute commute both ways (as is the case in Dublin).

People who do move to rural 'Main Street' locations- very often are trying to escape the rat race of Dublin- and expect a better quality of life by moving to these locations- if the main measure is simply a financial incentive to buy a house in a village in the arse end of nowhere- its doomed to failure.

Have a look at the recent Allsop auctions. They are littered with developments from the West and border areas- which do have facilities- most of them have easy access to broadband and shops- yet- they are unsaleable- no-one wants to live there at any price.........

Heather Humphreys would do well to look at the bigger picture rather than making headline grabbing news flashes about incentives to live on 'Main Street'. I haven't seen her plans- however- I suspect its not been thought through (at all)- and Ms. Humphreys imagines that chucking a tax incentive at rural villages will miraculously result in these areas flourishing.

murphaph

So long as one off development outside towns and villages is allowed, this measure is doomed to fail. Rural towns and villages died because people opted to build a one off a few km from them.

fits

I grew up on a main street of a small town. Newsagents next door, butchers two doors up, school 60 metres away. Big garden out the back. It was brilliant. Small towns are the way forward. Think this is a great idea.

Speedwell

My husband doesn't drive for health reasons, so we need to be close to regular public transport if I'm going to work out of the house (I currently work from home). We need fibre broadband (because I work from home and technical considerations having to do with VPN/VOIP). Both are available in my town. I would be happy to buy an inexpensive house on the main street, except there is literally no point on the entire street that is out of sight of a pub, takeaway, or bookmaker. And this is a relatively quiet, clean town, too.

TheDoc

_Kaiser_ wrote: »

Not 2 weeks in the job and we have this idea from the new Minister for Rural Development, Heather Humphreys:



Complete nonsense IMO. Have a wander down any main street this morning and you'll find it littered with fast food remnants, beer bottles and cans and of course the pervasive smell of urine from every corner.

Not to mention how much fun it is trying to get (kids) to sleep when the noise of the drunken antics from the local pub are filling the room - to say nothing of the shouting and singing after closing time.

If this is HH's answer then she clearly didn't understand the question.

As someone who live on a main street in a town probably a good example (Donabate) I think an incentive is a bit weird. It was of course odd and weird having people peer in my front windows, the constant noise and traffic and there being a pub right across the road.

It was a nice apartment, and it was a nice area. But I don't think an incentive would have made us stay. Moved due to Eircom monopoloy and robbery with broadband.

Parking the obvious issue as mentioned by someone else, not to mention the concerns with the safety of that vehicle. Strangers and drunks doing damage to your car, where you have no recourse. My car never had hassle, but a friend in another main street dwelling has had his windows put in three times, on seperate occasions by drunken arseholes, and has had no discourse.

Not to mention typically a car left parked overnight on a mainstreet commands a higher insurance premium then a car parked in say a driveway.

Also completely unsuitable for young couples who inevitably move to having a young family. While at the time of moving it wasn't a big concern, but we have a two year old now, and another on the way. And living in Donabate mainstreet wouldn't have been an ideal area. Granted there was Newbridge a walk way, and the beach another walk away, there would be no real playing area, or a street to kick a ball or run around like I had growing up.

I've no major problem with incentives being provided mind you, aslong as they are not outragous and make people feel like they are missing out.