Waterford North Quays

Harry Palmr · 26-05-2021 1:15pm

Port of Waterford have just released a study for eco and history based tourism with the Estuary as the focal point.

Wanderer78 · 26-05-2021 1:16pm

killbillvol2 wrote: »

We don't though. Do we?

Our great local business minds bought the land by the river and paved it and painted white lines for cars. Then the visionary council narrowed the quay and painted more white lines on the other side for more cars!

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/consumer/pedestrianisation-of-irish-city-streets-begins-ahead-of-outdoor-summer-1.4574058

Article from the IT on Monday about plans to pedestrianise more areas of cities for the summer - mentions of Waterford's plans? Zilch. I actually rang the council to enquire about plans and was given an email address to contact - in other words PFO.

who actually owns those care parks?

friendlyfun · 26-05-2021 1:23pm

Flow Motion wrote: »

Love it :pac: You are a visionary!

Imagine a grey foggy day when you could barely see a few feet in front of you; but rather than a fog horn sounding you could have JM's catchphrase "I loves me county" echoing through the hills of Waterford.

The Mullane statue would be a game changer though. Perhaps we could add a few more local characters to the mix over time so we could have our own Deise version of Mount Rushmore?? We'd need 3 more heads to fill the gaps. Any suggestions??

Tawdy Morrissey for one!

BBM77 · 26-05-2021 1:30pm

Crusty Blaa wrote: »

Having worked in Kilkenny for years I always found the grá and jealousy towards the place a bit puzzling and generally from people with rose tinted glasses. Yeah it's a nice town but unless you're mad for pints there's not much to it and the traffic is horrendous especially since they brought in the one way system. The castle is beautiful but we can't exactly build one of them.

Waterford has a lot more to offer tourists in terms of museums, landmarks, Waterford Crystal, walks, beaches etc. However we do need to sort out the hospitality shortfalls in Waterford - there's a reason it's generally only used as a day stop on tours whereas KK is an overnighter.

I also work in Kilkenny and completely agree with what you say. Nowhere is perfect of course but in terms of what is on offer to tourists and residents Waterford is miles ahead. Economically speaking, Baush & Lomb on its own employs more people than all the main employers in Kilkenny together. The population of Kilkenny “city” would not fill one suburb in Waterford. I don’t even find Kilkenny a particularly nice town TBH. Full of aggressive accountant types.

killbillvol2 · 26-05-2021 2:23pm

Wanderer78 wrote: »

who actually owns those care parks?

Well the council bought back the land around the Clock Tower as part of the NQ project. No idea how much it cost but I'm sure that information is available?

The Port of Waterford still owns a lot of the other land I think.

Wanderer78 · 26-05-2021 2:27pm

killbillvol2 wrote:

Well the council bought back the land around the Clock Tower as part of the NQ project. No idea how much it cost but I'm sure that information is available?

Must look into it, the nq land should remain in public ownership, it might reduce speculation

friendlyfun · 26-05-2021 6:15pm

You'd think there would be at least a coffee shop or something on the side of the Quays where the carparks are.

Flow Motion · 27-05-2021 11:44am

killbillvol2 wrote: »

We don't though. Do we?

Our great local business minds bought the land by the river and paved it and painted white lines for cars. Then the visionary council narrowed the quay and painted more white lines on the other side for more cars!

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/consumer/pedestrianisation-of-irish-city-streets-begins-ahead-of-outdoor-summer-1.4574058

Article from the IT on Monday about plans to pedestrianise more areas of cities for the summer - mentions of Waterford's plans? Zilch. I actually rang the council to enquire about plans and was given an email address to contact - in other words PFO.

Just goes to show the car park consortium and the WCCC can't see or are just willingly ignore the City side of the river and have done for years. Apart from the Plaza there's nothing else.
As for the car parks those business owners would have taken a huge hit since Covid struck as they have been empty most of the time. Wouldnt it be nice to have those car parks turned into open areas with paving, grass, trees etc together with some coffee/food stalls and outdoor seating?
As for the median down the middle of the Quay its laughable. How many times have we seen ambulances struggling to wade thru the traffic??

Dunmoreroader · 27-05-2021 11:54am

Wanderer78 wrote: »

who actually owns those care parks?

https://companycheck.co.uk/company/ie167589/KEVERFLOW-LIMITED/companies-house-data

azimuth17 · 27-05-2021 1:46pm

Flow Motion wrote: »

Just goes to show the car park consortium and the WCCC can't see or are just willingly ignore the City side of the river and have done for years. Apart from the Plaza there's nothing else.
As for the car parks those business owners would have taken a huge hit since Covid struck as they have been empty most of the time. Wouldnt it be nice to have those car parks turned into open areas with paving, grass, trees etc together with some coffee/food stalls and outdoor seating?
As for the median down the middle of the Quay its laughable. How many times have we seen ambulances struggling to wade thru the traffic??

Historically all the land between the edge of the public road and the low water mark in the river was vested in the Harbour Board and not the council. As port uses moved to the north side and then to Belview, Harbour board were obliged to make best use of their assets as a state company. The car park land was leased by harbour board to local business people who developed them as car parking. Keverflow Ltd was the vehicle. The bus station site was leased by Bus Eireann from harbour port as well. Planning permission for both these developments was strenuously contested with Oral hearings in both cases and permission granted by An Bord Pleanala. As a result, the notion of the quays as publicly amenity emerged which led to harbour board selling Clyde Wharf to city council to develop the Millennium Plaza.

Everyone I know would like a linear park on the quays but we are not communists. These things have to be bought back by council and they have started the process by acquiring 200 car spaces which will be turned into amenity. Trouble is, the process is slow. Car parks have been sub let to car park operators Q Park or some such company. they have an interest in them which has to be bought out. Its easy to take a hatchet to the council..."They do nothing boy"..."crowd of dopes boy"...but what about the remains of the motorway garage which has defaced the quay for 30 years or on a wider note, or the wreckage of the Waterford Glass offices, or the state of the Yellow House. You should take a hatchet to the private sector who are worse than moribund in Waterford. Sitting in their hands, counting the pennies.

Almost by definition everything our council does is wrong, and I am no apologist for them. Yes they could and must do better, but the truth is always more nuanced.

Sorry to run on.

Wanderer78 · 27-05-2021 2:30pm

azimuth17 wrote: »

Historically all the land between the edge of the public road and the low water mark in the river was vested in the Harbour Board and not the council. As port uses moved to the north side and then to Belview, Harbour board were obliged to make best use of their assets as a state company. The car park land was leased by harbour board to local business people who developed them as car parking. Keverflow Ltd was the vehicle. The bus station site was leased by Bus Eireann from harbour port as well. Planning permission for both these developments was strenuously contested with Oral hearings in both cases and permission granted by An Bord Pleanala. As a result, the notion of the quays as publicly amenity emerged which led to harbour board selling Clyde Wharf to city council to develop the Millennium Plaza.

Everyone I know would like a linear park on the quays but we are not communists. These things have to be bought back by council and they have started the process by acquiring 200 car spaces which will be turned into amenity. Trouble is, the process is slow. Car parks have been sub let to car park operators Q Park or some such company. they have an interest in them which has to be bought out. Its easy to take a hatchet to the council..."They do nothing boy"..."crowd of dopes boy"...but what about the remains of the motorway garage which has defaced the quay for 30 years or on a wider note, or the wreckage of the Waterford Glass offices, or the state of the Yellow House. You should take a hatchet to the private sector who are worse than moribund in Waterford. Sitting in their hands, counting the pennies.

Almost by definition everything our council does is wrong, and I am no apologist for them. Yes they could and must do better, but the truth is always more nuanced.

Sorry to run on.

id completely agree, theres no question theres failures occurring within state bodies, its the nature of the beast unfortunately, but elements of the private sector are now just bloody dangerous, just simply extracting wealth, which doesnt actually help anyone. we need to figure out how to make both sectors work together, noting, failures occur in both all the time, but we should try reduce these failures as much as possible

jelutong · 27-05-2021 6:14pm

Why not build something along the lines of the New York Railway Garden over a section of the car park?

BBM77 · 28-05-2021 9:45am

jelutong wrote: »

Why not build something along the lines of the New York Railway Garden over a section of the car park?

Why not just build a couple of multi-storey carparks? One behind the book centre and another on the surface carpark in Exchange st.

Harry Palmr · 28-05-2021 10:57am

One of the details from the Falcon plan was a carpark under the South Quays if I recall.

Flow Motion · 28-05-2021 10:58am

BBM77 wrote: »

Why not just build a couple of multi-storey carparks? One behind the book centre and another on the surface carpark in Exchange st.

Or why not build the car parks beneath the road surface?? You see them all over Europe. Sure you would have to excavate a few levels but it would be worth it in the long term

BBM77 · 28-05-2021 11:37am

Flow Motion wrote: »

Or why not build the car parks beneath the road surface?? You see them all over Europe. Sure you would have to excavate a few levels but it would be worth it in the long term

I agree. Just meant there is no reason that one of the cities best features is destroyed by surface parking. It is just lack of action. If the council can progress the north quays from an unviable site to one on the brink of redevelopment they can get rid of surface parking on the south quays.

Oscar Madison · 30-05-2021 3:53pm

Flow Motion wrote: »

Or why not build the car parks beneath the road surface?? You see them all over Europe. Sure you would have to excavate a few levels but it would be worth it in the long term

Can you imagine the amount of work involved in that project removing

tonnes of silt/sludge. You would have to remove the entire roadway along the

Quays (not a bad idea) and then start removing whatever lies underneath it and

then put in a defence system to protect it from refilling itself!

I think that they would be afraid that they might find something!

giles lynchwood · 30-05-2021 4:19pm

Oscar Madison wrote: »

Can you imagine the amount of work involved in that project removing

tonnes of silt/sludge. You would have to remove the entire roadway along the

Quays (not a bad idea) and then start removing whatever lies underneath it and

then put in a defence system to protect it from refilling itself!

I think that they would be afraid that they might find something!

Jimmy Hoffa

imacman · 30-05-2021 9:41pm

Oscar Madison wrote: »

Can you imagine the amount of work involved in that project removing

tonnes of silt/sludge. You would have to remove the entire roadway along the

Quays (not a bad idea) and then start removing whatever lies underneath it and

then put in a defence system to protect it from refilling itself!

I think that they would be afraid that they might find something!

The the old city wall along the Quay was demolished and used a filler which the quay is built on

Wanderer78 · 31-05-2021 7:26am

imacman wrote:

The the old city wall along the Quay was demolished and used a filler which the quay is built on

Could you imagine the footfall we would have gotten if some of the old city remained, its disgraceful how its been demolished and filled in

curmudgeonly · 31-05-2021 8:50am

Wanderer78 wrote: »

Could you imagine the footfall we would have gotten if some of the old city remained, its disgraceful how its been demolished and filled in

The lads who did that can't hear ya.

Wanderer78 · 31-05-2021 9:27am

curmudgeonly wrote: »

The lads who did that can't hear ya.

gimme a second, i ll scream it! we ve been filing this stuff in forever, even within our lifetime, very short term thinking

imacman · 31-05-2021 5:42pm

Wanderer78 wrote: »

Could you imagine the footfall we would have gotten if some of the old city remained, its disgraceful how its been demolished and filled in

Yea a lot of the old Waterford walls and gates were demolished in the late 18th and early 19th century, they lasted 600- 700 years but progress got rid of them . One of the worst was the demolishing of the old Waterford train station which was a lovely building and replaced by a horribly bland modern building . And of course that will be replaced by the new NQ station

killbillvol2 · 02-06-2021 12:06pm

killbillvol2 wrote: »

We don't though. Do we?

Our great local business minds bought the land by the river and paved it and painted white lines for cars. Then the visionary council narrowed the quay and painted more white lines on the other side for more cars!

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/consumer/pedestrianisation-of-irish-city-streets-begins-ahead-of-outdoor-summer-1.4574058

Article from the IT on Monday about plans to pedestrianise more areas of cities for the summer - mentions of Waterford's plans? Zilch. I actually rang the council to enquire about plans and was given an email address to contact - in other words PFO.

Not only does Waterford Council not have a plan for outdoor dining, they're actually hindering it by refusing planning permission for outdoor seating.

https://waterford-news.ie/2021/06/02/outdoor-dining-plan-not-without-its-obstacles/

hardybuck · 02-06-2021 3:12pm

killbillvol2 wrote: »

Not only does Waterford Council not have a plan for outdoor dining, they're actually hindering it by refusing planning permission for outdoor seating.

https://waterford-news.ie/2021/06/02/outdoor-dining-plan-not-without-its-obstacles/

This has nothing to do with the North Quays.

killbillvol2 · 02-06-2021 3:48pm

hardybuck wrote: »

This has nothing to do with the North Quays.

No flies on you.

jelutong · 21-09-2021 6:51pm

Flynn’s Pub in Ferrybank was bought by the City Council for use as a site office during the course of The North Quays project and then converted to social housing. As it’s being developed as social housing in the near future does that point towards the fact that the North Quay project is no longer a runner?

Crusty Blaa · 22-09-2021 11:23am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117920955#Comment_117920955

The way things have gone, the NQ will probably end up being used for social housing too..

Wanderer78 · 22-09-2021 11:46am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117923050#Comment_117923050

it has some serious potential as a site, even though we badly need social housing, id rather see it being developed as a commercial/public space, with possible some social housing

Gardner · 23-09-2021 9:33am

i see Rob is still replying to himself on Twitter. haha

Waterford North Quays

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