Athlone thread

L.Jenkins

Registration for the event is open so I would assume so.

Sunny Dayz

Ah I dunno why I thought it wasn't on anymore. There's always a great buzz about the town and it's good to watch.

L.Jenkins

It's great, unless you live in the Monksland area. The roads are always blocked off every year, so the car has to be parked somewhere else other than the front of the house, so if we need to go somewhere in an emergency, we can just go.

bennyineire

charlieIRL wrote: »

FAI are going to get a kick in the backside from the Internation Centre for Sport Security if the article on the times.co.uk is to be believed.

Article is worth a read.

Link ?

charlieIRL

bennyineire wrote: »

Link ?

Here is the link Benny, stick in any old email address and you can read the full article.

Sorry for delay.

veryangryman

So one way will only happen if/when the link road project is complete? Is this correct?

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater

veryangryman wrote: »

So one way will only happen if/when the link road project is complete? Is this correct?

Where did you see that?

veryangryman

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater wrote: »

Where did you see that?

See what? I'm asking, not telling. Based on the posts above, It made me wonder what is holding up the implementation.

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater

veryangryman wrote: »

See what? I'm asking, not telling. Based on the posts above, It made me wonder what is holding up the implementation.

Ah, I wondered, the posts above are way back so I presumed something else had stirred your interest.

For what its worth, I hope it will only happen if/when the link road is ready for action. Otherwise, we're back to the same craic as the last one way system which was a bit of a disaster by all accounts (I was away at the time and didn't have much experience of it).

Blanco100

Can anyone tell me of any high speed broadband providers in the coosan area ?

Would be very interested in seeing what my options are in coosan point road/ Bloomfield area

Thanks a million in advance

pawrick

Blanco100 wrote: »

Can anyone tell me of any high speed broadband providers in the coosan area ?

Would be very interested in seeing what my options are in coosan point road/ Bloomfield area

Thanks a million in advance

try your address in bonkers.ie to see who covers your home

pawrick

Anyone notice all the invasive species signs appearing along the Roscommon road past Ganleys roundabout on the left as you leave town and on both sides further along the road? I assume it's Japanese knotweed warnings but haven't had a close look yet. If it is hopefully the council haven't spread it too much around the place.

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater

Mods, I wonder could we sticky this thread? Started it partly for people to ask questions/get info and I've seen a few threads started over things that might have gotten a quicker response on this thread, had it been seen. Just a suggestion.

pawrick

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater wrote: »

Mods, I wonder could we sticky this thread? Started it partly for people to ask questions/get info and I've seen a few threads started over things that might have gotten a quicker response on this thread, had it been seen. Just a suggestion.

2nd that sugestion

6541

How is the whole chinatown thing going ?

pawrick

6541 wrote: »

How is the whole chinatown thing going ?

Haven't heard mention of that in ages, I assume everyone involved would like it to be quietly forgotten about?

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater

Whole thing was sort of pie in the sky from the word go at any rate.

tractorporn

6541 wrote:

How is the whole chinatown thing going ?

pawrick wrote:

Haven't heard mention of that in ages, I assume everyone involved would like it to be quietly forgotten about?

They set up in Birmingham instead

L.Jenkins

We should set up our own chinatown.

Buckfast W

L.Jenkins wrote:

We should set up our own chinatown.

With black jack, and hookers???

Blanco100

Does anyone know where the A2 bus stops on the coosan road? It says it stops every half on near coosan heath but I've not seen any actual bus stop does anyone know?

Thanks in advance

flowerbattle

Blanco100 wrote: »

Does anyone know where the A2 bus stops on the coosan road? It says it stops every half on near coosan heath but I've not seen any actual bus stop does anyone know?

Thanks in advance

It stopped for me just across the road from the entrance to Coosan Heath. I'm guessing you just have to stand on the side of the road and hail it down.

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater

They recently extended the bus route out to Bealnamullia, but there are no stops or signage, you just have to hail the bus.

Blanco100

flowerbattle wrote: »

It stopped for me just across the road from the entrance to Coosan Heath. I'm guessing you just have to stand on the side of the road and hail it down.

If I was heading to golden island which side of road do I stand ?

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater

Article on irishtimes.com about city status for Athlone;

Athlone should get an indication about how the Government feels about its bid for regional city status in coming months, when the first draft of the National Planning Framework is approved by Cabinet and put out for consultation.

But the town, right in the centre of Ireland, has been here before.

There was talk of potential city status for Athlone more than 15 years ago as part of the last National Spatial Strategy. Instead, Athlone got lumped in with Tullamore and Mullingar as the “ATM” gateway region for the midlands. It is now widely acknowledged that the ATM model failed. Athlone wants to strike out on its own.

Destination Athlone, the steering group that is driving Athlone’s bid, grew out of a tourism industry collaboration set up four years ago, which now also incorporates public-sector groups and private-sector operators across many sectors.



Taking the successful development of Westport as inspiration, they are banking on a collaborative approach to secure city status. This, they hope, will spur public investment, which would in turn lead to more private investment.

Co-ordination

There was a perception in the past that Athlone suffered from a lack of co-ordination between the two county council regions it straddles. Martin Lydon of Roscommon County Council and Pat Keating of Westmeath County Council, both active in the Destination Athlone group, say their local authorities are now firmly behind the bid for city status.

Roscommon council is progressing plans for a new innovation centre in the Monksland area of Athlone, which it hopes will boost commerce from the west side of town. Lydon says Roscommon councillors have “unanimously” backed Athlone’s city bid: “For the first time, we are looking east, rather than west.”

Keating says he believes Athlone has “the best chance” out of any of the midlands towns of fulfilling the Government’s mooted ambition of developing a new city in the region. Other areas, such as Portlaoise, may also be in the running, however.


For the business sector, the bid for city status is seen as crucial for attracting investment to Athlone. John O’Regan, a senior executive with one of the biggest local employers, telecommunications manufacturer Ericsson, says it would help the company attract and retain the best engineers, which he said is vital for the company’s growth.

Destination Athlone’s chairman, the Hodson Bay hotelier John O’Sullivan, is hoping for an indication from Government before the end of the year.

“The midlands region has to have a centre. We feel it has to be us,” he said.

I can't see it happening tbh. The midlands gateway thing failed to spark because of a lack of critical mass, the towns failed to do enough to attract the industry and population needed to grow sufficiently.


Athlone definitely has plenty going for it in terms of infrastructure and commerce, but the population isn't here to call it a true city, there'd need to be an absolute explosion in growth for that to happen.

roosterman71

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater wrote: »

I can't see it happening tbh. The midlands gateway thing failed to spark because of a lack of critical mass, the towns failed to do enough to attract the industry and population needed to grow sufficiently.


Athlone definitely has plenty going for it in terms of infrastructure and commerce, but the population isn't here to call it a true city, there'd need to be an absolute explosion in growth for that to happen.

Isn't Portlaoise one of the fastest growing town in Ireland. Surely it would be ahead of Athlone in terms of getting city status. It does lack the tourism Athlone has, and the college too though. Athlone has plenty going for it, but it certainly isn't a city

pawrick

It'll certainly never happen when much of the population is split between Roscommon and Westmeath and not within the urban district. As it stands Athlone can't present a united front as a town never mind a city. Officially it has a tiny population within it's urban district and even counting the rural areas around the town the population is still too small. Only huge investment would create the draw factors to bring people otherwise they would be coming already (maybe they got lost in the midlands triangle that was the ATM Gateway mentioned).

That said I agree we have some good things going for us. Number one being access associated with being in the centre of the country and having excellent transport links to Dublin and Galway. Links to Cork and the North not so great. We also have lots of land available to develop.

An improved train service could make the town a viable option for commuters who would otherwise choose towns closer to Dublin and this could help kickstart a population boom but i think that would require additional train lines and faster trains to reduce the journey time. An airport at this stage wouldn't have the demand to stay afloat and realistically we aren't far from Dublin or Shannon airports.

Over all I think our town leaders over the years have been lacking in foresight and in attempting to make the town a more attractive place to live. Even simple things seem above many of them, for example it's only now we have a small wall built to help prevent flooding at the white bridge after all these years, I'm surprised there hasn't been a ribbon cutting event to show it off yet! And the amount of poorly built/maintained speed ramps around the town is ridiculous.

pawrick

roosterman71 wrote: »

Isn't Portlaoise one of the fastest growing town in Ireland. Surely it would be ahead of Athlone in terms of getting city status. It does lack the tourism Athlone has, and the college too though. Athlone has plenty going for it, but it certainly isn't a city

Many of the fastest growing towns are commuter towns. I think Portlaoise falls in to this category as being on the edge of Dublins sphere of influence with people chasing the more affordable places to live. Athlone is just too far for most people to commute from on a daily basis.

L.Jenkins

What I would like to see is rejuvenation of the town itself before any further growth continues. Main street through town, connaught street and other areas of the town need redevelopment and tidying up, before they're absolutely forgotten about and become slums.

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater

L.Jenkins wrote: »

What I would like to see is rejuvenation of the town itself before any further growth continues. Main street through town, connaught street and other areas of the town need redevelopment and tidying up, before they're absolutely forgotten about and become slums.

Connaught Street, in particular, is in severe danger of never recovering. There is some sort of problem with the rates structure there as far as I know. If there is no way of saving it commercially, then redevelopment should be looked at - as it stands, it is a waste of land. A bookies, a chipper and a few pubs are the only things open on the street.