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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
6 6 December - January 2017
by Emma Gilleece
Limerick
Regeneration Game
ENVIRONMENT
Lord Edward Street: Construction within former Tait Factory
Structure, photographed August 2016
€260m has been spent on the
Limerick Regeneration programme
since its inception in 2008. After
a bad start a reasonable effort is
now underway but new build is
far less than intended.
T
HE MINISTER FOR Housing, Planning, Commu-
nity and Local Government, Simon Coveney,
launched a report on 9 December detailing the
progress of one of the largest Regeneration
Projects in the State. This is the first assess-
ment of the impact of the Limerick Regeneration
Framework Implementation Plan (LRFIP) which covers
four regeneration areas of St Mary’s Park, Moyross, Bal-
linacurra Weston and Southill. The LRFIP was adopted
by the elected members of Limerick City Council in Feb-
ruary 2014, endorsed by the DoECLG.
Coveney summed up the Limerick situation at the
launch saying “The challenges we face in the area of
housing include not just developing new supply, but also
tackling legacy issues from a time when housing deliv-
ery perhaps focused more on quantity over quality”.
The overarching objective of the LRFIP is encapsulated
in its vision statement:
“Safe and sustainable communities of opportunity
where people of all ages enjoy a good quality of life, a
decent home and a sense pride about their place. Well
serviced and attractive neighbourhoods will be
physically connected and fully integrated with the
social, economic and cultural life of Limerick.” The Moni-
toring Programme is designed to achieve the holistic
improvement of the regeneration areas by improving
outcomes across seven key themes as follows:
•
Three ‘place-related’ themes: Housing and Physical
Environment, Crime and Community Safety,
Community;
•
Four ‘people-related’ themes: Employment and Enter-
prise, Health, Families and Youth at Risk and
Education”.
Ambitious regeneration projects include: the comple
-
tion of the Lord Edward Street apartments (picture
above), the delivery of the Moyross Community Centre,
Cliona Park accommodation, sports projects and invest-
ment into social regeneration. As part of the
implementation plan, a total of €106.5m was projected
for Moyross, including €37m for new housing; €10.8m
for refurbishment; €40m on the Coonagh-Knockalisheen
distributor road; €2.5m on an expansion for Moyross
Community Enterprise Centre. One city-wide project
December - January 2017 6 7
included a €2m equestrian centre.
There seems to have been a turning point in
2011. No longer is money being thrown at the
situation with little to show for it.
The expiry of the Regeneration Agency in 2012
with the transfer of reponsibility for regeneration
to Limerick City and County Council was a turn-
ing point in the regeneration story.
The Regeneration Agency, instigated in June
2007, followed from the proposals outlined in
the Fitzgerald Report (2007) to "establish struc-
tures for regeneration" involving the
establishment of two regeneration agencies,
one for the Northside and one for the Southside.
"Vision" Plans for the Northside and Southside
regeneration areas were developed and by Octo-
ber 2008, a Masterplan was prepared - 'clean
slate approach' - extensive demolition of both
private and public housing as well as all commu-
nity/churches and school facilities and their
replacement with new housing and other mixed
uses. This was a €3bn plan which equated to
€1m per home (3000 homes overall).
The Masterplan is now redundant since its
replacement by the LRFIP in 2014. It should be
noted that the original masterplans were never
endorsed by the Department at the time or
indeed even Limerick City Council as they were
being driven by the Regeneration Agency which
has now thankfully disbanded. Architectural and
planning professionals were recruited, and the
local Community engaged more.
A comprehensive review was carried out from
June 2010 to September 2013 which had regard
to all relevant features including the prevailing
and projected economic circumstances. In addi
-
tion, retention and refurbishment options were
renewed and identified.
Following the transfer of responsibilities to
Limerick City Council in 2012, a comprehensive
review of the programme resulted in a focus on
retention and refurbishment options rather than
wholesale demolition. People did not want to
see their homes demolished. This might be said
to address the issues of dereliction but not that
of bad planning that tends to undermine com-
munity solidarity.
€152,282,611 was spent by the Limerick
Regeneration Office before it was replaced.
Expenditure by Limerick City Council and Limer-
ick City and County Council from June 2012 up to
the end of 2015 was €104,827,300.
The average expenditure per year on Limerick
Regeneration has been €28,567,767.
Approximately 1,000 dwellings have been
demolished since 2008. As part of the original
plan, it was hoped that more than 3,000 homes
would be demolished, and that 2,500 would be
constructed. This has been reduced to 549.
Remarkably, no more than 150 houses and no
more than 241 housing units have actually been
constructed. The number of units demolished
between June 2007 and April 2016 is 1,039. Of
this figure, 144 have been demolished since the
adoption of the Limerick Regeneration Frame-
work Implementation Plan (LRFIP) in February
2014.
That’s a lot of demolition and not so much new
build so it is important to put these figure in
context.
Up to February 2014, the demolition pro-
gramme in the first period of regeneration
favoured a ‘clean-slate’ approach and reflected
a sharp population decline in the regeneration
areas over a 30-year period.
This reflected the simple fact that between
1981 and 2011 the population in the areas
involved declined by between 48 and 70 per
cent. In simple terms, many people had left
these areas with a resultant spike in the number
of vacant units which adversely affected the
quality of life of those who remained and gave
rise to additional problems with anti-social
behaviour. A great deal of damage was done to
morale in the current Rejuvenation Areas in the
1980s when a £5,000 grant was made available
to tenants there to move to private housing in the
middle-class suburbs outside the city centre.
Many of the most dynamic tenants including
industrial workers moved out.
The whole approach should now probably
start reflecting the fact that for the first time in
two centuries there seems to be some momen
-
tum for Limerick to actually develop, with talk
from business people at least of Limerick becom-
ing Ireland’s second city.
Not all the original ambitious regeneration tar-
gets outlined from 2007 or indeed 2011 are being
realised as new targets were set with the adop-
tion of LRFIP. The plan is a robust,
evidence-based, measurable Implementation
plan though it is not ambitious enough.
The Demolition and Retention Strategy was
reviewed in 2015 with a further 44 houses being
retained. Given that new housing proposed in
the regeneration areas is replacement housing,
the overall number of houses required, based on
the calculation adopted in the LRFIP in 2014,
reduces from 593 to 549.
So far of that 549, 241 units have been com
-
pleted or are under construction as follows;
•
110 new housing units have been delivered
under the regeneration programme (Colivet
Court, Cliona Park Phase 1, Cliona Park Gap
Site, Vizes Court and Waller’s Well) with an
additional 134 currently under construction
and 98 more due to commence shortly.
•
131 units under construction (Lord Edward
Street, Cliona Park Phase 2, Churchfield
Phase 1)
1,000 dwellings have been
demolished since 2008.
Originally 3,000 homes
were to be demolished,
and 2,500 constructed.
This has been reduced
to 549. No more than
241 housing units have
actually been constructed.
REGENERATION AREAS WITHIN LIMERICK CITY
6 8 December - January 2017
• 273 units though not under construction are
at detailed design stage/design stage
• 50 units have preliminary approval.
Additionally, up to February 2016, the regen
-
eration programme has funded and delivered a
total of 85 housing units for older people.
In tandem with the new-build programme, the
extensive refurbishment of vacant houses, also
known as ‘long-term voids’, has also provided
additional homes. Over 1,504 existing houses
will be retained and refurbished to a BER Rating
of C in the regeneration areas including a signifi-
cant number of private houses. At the end of July
2016, a total of 278 units have been refurbished
and had their insulation upgraded to make them
warmer homes and more environmentally sus-
tainable and affordable to heat. A further 485 are
currently on site or in preparation and due to be
similarly upgraded by the end of 2016. The area-
wide refurbishment project is on-target with
approximately 50% (763 units) of the overall
units complete, on site or in preparation at the
end of July 2016. The thermal upgrade pro-
gramme is due for completion at the end of 2018.
Refurbishment and remedial/repair works are
taking place beyond residential housing such as
several derelict structures on Nicholas Street
with the objective of improving the environmen-
tal quality of the street including 24, 25, 26, 27
and 35 Nicholas Street and the ‘Fireplace Site’
(36-39).
It is not clear whether the quality of the build
-
ings that are being refurbished and upgraded is
sufficient for Limerick to reach aspirations to be
an excellent place to live, or whether the density
of existing developments conduces to transpor-
tation and infrastructure desirable to effect
radical change in the local quality of life.
Achievements under the LRFIP include:
•
More than 300 jobs have been created as a
direct result of the plan’s funding.
•
There has been increased attendance at
school and other services and higher numbers
from DEIS schools progressing to further level.
•
There has been a significant reduction in head-
line crime figures in Limerick between 2007
and 2015. The figures for youth crime have
also decreased.
• Over the period of considerable cut-backs in
state funding for community and social ser-
vices, it has been possible to retain such
services at a level in Limerick that would not
have been possible in the absence of
regeneration.
•
Moyross Community Enterprise Centre, St
Mary’s AID, Our Lady of Lourdes Community
Support Group, Tait House Southill, Southill
Area Centre, St. Munchin’s in Killeely and Gar-
ryowen Community Development Project have
all been aided in the provision of services
including: childcare, after-schools services,
parenting programmes, meals and services for
elderly people, education and training, com-
munity enterprise, work experience, and
employment.
•
A number of sports projects are being sup-
ported including the development of sports
facilities and the purchase of small-scale equip-
ment, while the “Sing Out with Strings” project
and Music Generation Limerick are offering chil
-
dren the opportunity to engage in music.
• Regeneration initiatives are assisting people
to become more employable, find work, creat-
ing jobs and support the development of social
and community enterprise.
•
Community enterprises are providing work
placements, temporary employment and / or
jobs for local people in areas including insula-
tion, community cafes, meals and catering,
hairdressing, services for older people and
bike repair. While many of the jobs are still in
temporary, employment programmes such as
Community Employment Schemes, the inten-
tion is that through training, improving
work-related skills and support for self-
employment, enterprise and social enterprise,
participants on schemes can progress into
mainstream jobs.
•
Limerick Community Development Project and
ENVIRONMENT
The original masterplans
were never endorsed by the
Department at the time or
indeed even Limerick City
Council as they were being
driven by the Regeneration
Agency which has now
thankfully disbanded.
Proposed scheme at the Orchard site for elderly residents, St Mary's Park
December - January 2017 6 9
schools in or serving populations in disadvan-
taged areas have been supported to offer
extra-curricular activities for children and
young people during school holidays, after-
school services and additional educational
supports in-school including literacy pro
-
grammes and civic education.
• Funding from regeneration also provides bur
-
saries for students from regeneration and
other disadvantaged communities in the city
that have accepted places in third level
colleges.
• A number of family-support projects are now
available to families in regeneration areas, to
help them face day-to-day challenges, provide
information and help to access services they
might need such as
According to the social geographer David Harvey,
bad planning in urban areas lies at the heart of
much that is wrong in contemporary urban soci
-
eties. The badly-planned 1970s sprawling
Southill estate demonstrated the societal out-
comes of poor planning practices, compounded
by a lack of community resources, poor commu
-
nity policing and endemically high levels of
unemployment. Southill consists of a reasonably
good stock of houses, but it sprawls on forever,
and there seems to be no way out and nowhere
to go, particularly at the rear of the estate where
there seems to be a concentration of anti-social
activity.
Recommendations
• The official LFRIP review [eg above] talks the
talk but does not go far enough. There should
be more new build to higher densities and
quality than existing suburban-style estates.
In particular Southill and Moyross are charac
-
teristically laid out in depressing cul de sacs
which should be reinvented with greater per
-
meability, more high-quality open space and
greenery and much better social and leisure
infrastructure.
•
Emphasise quality of architecture and plan-
ning. The residents of these areas of Limerick
deserve development that vastly improves the
local quality of life. While the recent Review
shows quality of life is on the agenda the ambi-
tion is not big or precise enough. Areas
subject to renewal should aim for an excellent
quality of life and should facilitate it through
monitoring a range of dozens of indicators
(employment, crime, educational attainment,
green space, architectural quality, quality of
transport, leisure facilities indoors and out-
doors, etc) to improve performance,
systematically.
•
Expedite work. Local residents groups have
long complained of the damage to morale and
crime that results from properties being
boarded or retrofitted. Generally within the
regeneration areas, house prices are stagnant
indicates a low demand and low confidence.
•
Ensure locals are properly represented in deci-
sion-making including in the decision-making
process on any future changes to the LRFIP.
•
Explain to locals the change to plans espe-
cially the decision to retain much of the
originally disdained housing stock, and why
that is desirable.
• Integrate the LRFIP into the Limerick City and
County Development Plan so it becomes
determinant of planning applications. This
added force would generate confidence that
the plan will be implemented, and encourage
private development.
• Continue to promote a mix of tenure: building
houses is the easy part. Limerick is the most
socially segregated of the four provincial
cities. Why has it the highest proportion of
local authority housing of any Irish city, as well
as the highest rate of youth unemployment,
suicide and marriage breakdown?
Limerick-born sociologist Dr Niamh Hourigan,
author of Understanding Limerick (2011), which
explores the factors which underpin the prob-
lems of social exclusion in Limerick’s
marginalised periphery, suggests that rigid class
divisions occur where there is no university (Lim-
erick had none until 1989), leaving few routes but
for the most able. In Limerick, people turned their
skills into trade union activity.
The loss of manufacturing jobs over the dec-
ades such as Ranks, Krups, Ferenka, Dell etc.
was a heavy blow with no replacements. Finan-
cial desperation led to drug gangs which goes
hand in hand with feuding.
It looks like Limerick is finally sorting its social
housing problems and realising that its regenera-
tion must go beyond mere bricks and mortar.
The official LFRIP review
talks the talk but does not
go far enough. There should
be more new build to higher
densities and quality than
existing suburban-style
estates’
Official LFRIP review 2016: analytical but not quite critical enough
