Waterford North Quays

The lack of any building going on might be a clue there...if they thought this was viable in its current format they'd be falling over one another. And are they? Certainly doesn't appear so. Whole thing needs to be re-thought with some realism or the tumbleweed will continue to blow.

What am I backtracking on?

My main complaint here is that the council are incapable of attracting any substantial development into the city centre.

Name one modern / high quality apartment, retail or office complex in the immediate city centre, built in the last three decades - that is comparable to achievements in the other cities - and I will shut up right now.

You started off slating the Council, stating that underperformance of such magnitude wouldn't be tolerated in the private sector. You neglected to mention that it was the private sector developer who failed to deliver which is why the plug had to be pulled. You subsequently moved on to state that the Council shouldn't have trusted the private sector developer to do their job - I think you're being a bit unfair.

I would agree with you that its not that developing sites is not the core competency of County Councils. Personally, I'm wondering if they'd be better off selling the site altogether - and that would free up the Council to focus on other things which they actually have a core competency in.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118219256/#Comment_118219256

People are arguing against your original post above. Which is unfair and simply untrue in many places, likewise in your following posts. You seem to have some vendetta against Waterford Council for some reason. You are just twisting things to make Waterford Council look bad so you can criticize them where it is not deserved. The reality is Waterford Council under Michael Walsh has done more than anybody to progress Waterford city. Even in the face of breath-taking unfairness at national government level, frankly useless local TD’s and senior ministers actively working to restrain Waterford’s development.

PS. Before you say it. Michael Walsh is nothing to me, I never even meet the man.

What is untrue/unfair about my original post?

If it is unfair or untrue, then please name one major development in the city centre in the last three decades. It can be any one of the following:

1. Decent high quality apartment building.
2. High quality, high density office building - capable of attracting a major company.
3. Large-scale retail development - with shops that people actually want to visit

If you cannot name one then my post is true and fair.

Has it crossed your mind that Waterford just mightn't have been an attractive proposition for developers in recent years? You also need people who are from the area to take the bull by the horns and make investments - maybe the business community in Waterford haven't been as entrepreneurial in that regard as people in other cities.

The only city to make any tangible progress with its docklands is Dublin. I think all of the other cities you've mentioned also have large areas of docklands which are underdeveloped - and some of them have maybe only recently moved ahead of Waterford in terms of their plans - but not the execution of them. Galway haven't made any progress to the best of my knowledge, and Limerick are tying to make some of their big sites work via the Land Development Agency. A development was just announced in Cork, but they've done nothing with it yet.

The Council do have a big role to play in terms of Local Area Plans, zoning land, planning permissions and facilitating development by putting in infrastructure. I'd prefer to see them sell this site to enable them to get on with those important tasks.

Fact of the matter is that all the cities, have underdeveloped quays.

In my opinion Dublin is the only one to make tangible progress, but I'll take your word about Cork as I haven't been down there in two years or so.

The main thrust of my point was that these are difficult and complex developments. I was responding to those who slated the Council as I didn't think that was particularly fair.

How come?

I'm not up to date on all this. Has the whole project been scrapped? Just a derelict site now? The old Stanley site is the same.

Thank you for that information 🙂

Does the bridge have a roof? Seems like an important feature for those wet and windy Irish days!

How many roofed bridges have you seen recently? Will you be making a submission regarding your proposal?

Is it not too late for that?

Why rubbish the suggestion? The weather in Ireland is dreadful, we need to own up to it and mitigate it.

In fairness, the council are already starting to do this with plans for Michael Street and O'Connell street. Why stop there? Crossing Rice Bridge on a cold, wet and windy day is the absolute pits.

Plenty of sheltering on this new bridge might make the walk into town a bit more appealing.

I'm no engineer but you might have issues with the wind tunnel up the Suir if you had a roof on it, roof structural damage etc.

Im sure it's possible to place some sort of roof canopy over it, but would most likely need to be somewhat enclosed either side in order to keep pedestrians dry, which would keep driving the cost up no doubt