Waterford North Quays

I agree in that the car parks the length of the south quays in Waterford is some of the worst use of a Waterfront I have seen an any European city. Imagine if there a prom, walking and cycle paths, restaurants, shops, river cruises, bars and cafe's along the river instead of ground level car parks.

We should be celebrating being a city with such a large river flowing through it.

What are Cork Council doing right that our own Council are just continuously failing at?

I know Cork is a huge draw in comparison to Waterford, but we should be at least capable of one development on our North Quays that will sustain us for the next decade at least.

We now have a council that hasn't had any large scale development in the city centre for over three decades and I just don't think the quality, expertise or drive is there within the council to be able to deliver this kind of development within Waterford.

If you ask me - It's a case of small town ability in a city that deserves better and we can't even vote them out.

This is being done with private money. The reason these projects aren't happening faster in Cork is because the public money is so slow for infrastructure. Even if you look at the Kennedy Quay project posted above, there's a bridge in that will require public funding, and you can be sure that will be the issue with it coming to fruition in full. The other projects that have been ongoing/completed in the last few years Albert Quay, Navigation Square, Horgans Quay, Penrose Quay and currently The Prism haven't required much public infrastructure, so went through without much of a problem. And the bit that did, by Horgans Quay, took an absolute age, and wasn't to the spec originally mooted.

On the point about the council, Cork is at a huge advantage with huge swathes of land that is available from defunct industry, which have been earmarked for years. South docks all the way to Pairc Ui Chaoimh, the north dock along the entirety of Horgans Quay and further downstream at Tivoli with the port relocating to Ringaskiddy, opening up a huge area along the rail line.

As said, the developments in Cork you are talking about are private developments, likewise in Limerick and Galway. The council are doing the infrastructure work needed to get the north quays moving. What more can Waterford council do?

Agree with your comment about the student accommodation in Newgate St

And if TUSE gets the funding required and crystal site gets the go ahead (all a big if) then the crystal site will have student accommodation so what happens Newgate st then?

Left idle for another decade! There surely has to be a demand for a whytes of Wexford style hotel in Newgate St/Michael St area

We expect the council to get a high rise development built on the North Quays, yet they cannot even get carparks removed the South Quays.

They are just not up to it, simple as that.

Underperformance of such magnitude would simply not have been tolerated in the private sector!

I like to think about what Waterford City & County Council have achieved in the last number of years:

• Waterford Crystal Visitor Experience and Showroom
• Total re-vamp of old "ESB Offices" on the Mall
• New Medieval Museum
• Transforming the Bishops Palace into a Museum (Waterford Treasures)
• Municipal Art Gallery in O'Connell St
• Silver Museum & Museum of Time
• flood protection works
• Chairman's Arch residential area (next to Christ church Cathedral)
• Suir River Bridge and N25 Waterford City Bypass
• pedestrianisation of City Centre area
• Covering over & transforming the Applemarket
• Greenway Dungarvan to Waterford
• acquiring the North Quays site and clearing it (remember the Silos that used to greet you on arrival into Waterford)
• securing €28 million in URDF Funding for future City Centre regeneration
• renovation works at Mount Congreve House & Gardens (underway)
• to come - new train station (North Quays)
• to come - new pedestrian bridge across river at the Clock Tower (North Quays)
• to come - North Quays Infrastructure Works

I think the current council deserve some credit. Waterford was hammered by the financial crash, we have had back to back governments who have had little to no support for Waterford.

Pre the crash we have had the infamous Brendan McCann who objected to everything and drove developers away.

Even the people of Waterford such as the trade Unions were objecting against the Michael Street development so much so the project was delayed so long it never happened. I see former councilor Dick Roche recently saying something needs to be done with Michael St and be was one of the main objectors, you would have to wonder.

They seemed to really do all they good with North Quays but Falcon seemed to be somewhat of a bluff.

The fact of the matter is the government have held us back so long our city days are most likely over, we'll be no more than a regional town soon enough. Unless we get a senior minister we are well and truly fucked. Heck even our current political representatives here can't see that TU is a bad deal, they are contributing to this demotion of Waterford.

I would say the council pre the financial crash was a failure, they were just happy with developers building **** apartments for tax breaks and they had zero ambition, while also having little to no focus on tourism.

Current council I would have a go at for lack of upkeep and maintenance within the city centre.

Fair play to you for putting those achievements down on paper. People were whinging about about them since the dawn of time esp. in the local press pre-online fair game opinions. Def one of the downsides to our tech advance into the unknown : everyone is an expert, everyone has an opinion. Just feeding the algorithms. As per the list the city centre is a more more appealing place to the eye which anyone above the age of 30 will attest to. Guess that is the dog eat dog consumerist neo-liberal world we currently inhabit. Got to have the big house, the new phone, the latest model of car.... keeping up with the Jones' but feeding their debt levels nonetheless. The WCCC have done a great job considering what they are given from central Govt IMO. If anyone walks through the city centre take a look at the number of homeless people; not all are foreign, or drug addicts etc. Many are young locals. Everyone should have access to housing in this day and age.

yea i absolutely agree there, it is a very arguable statement, some tech jobs/work certainly is having a very serious negative effect on society, and the fact social media is also highly addictive which is causing all sorts of dysfunctional outcomes, it could be argued that both are now in fact highly dangerous for society, but id still like to think some tech work truly does benefit society as a whole

Not to mention the negative mental health affects social media is having.

Yes, totally aware.

But then the questions are - should the council have spotted the signs before ever getting involved with Falcon? Were they just bedazzled by Falcons promises? Were Falcon actually genuine and just needed more time due to Covid? Would another more savy council have had this site developed by now?

We are now at the end of 2021 and there still hasn't been a brick laid on the Waterford North Quays and there's now zero developer interest. Keep in mind we were told this would all be wrapped up again by September, yet here we are!

I'm not sure how anyone can defend the council when it comes to major developments in the city. The fact that there isn't any should speak for itself.

Ok, so its just that Waterford is an awful place with no promise and that's why no one wants to build here!

Something in the mix is just not right, to have such little development after all this time.

It just would not be tolerated in any other City, so it's no surprise that the whole country views us as nothing more than a 'town'. We certainly accept mediocre town-esque leadership.

I think you have a bit of a jaundiced view of the council and you're not being objective in fairness. You're backtracking now.