There was a great buzz at ‘The Plan’ in Tipperary Town last Saturday morning April 02nd during a public consultation as part of a project aimed at enhancing the area and creating an improved amenity for local and visitors. Limerick based architects Drake Hourigan were on hand to meet with members of the community to record people’s stories and memories of the park and to get the views of the local community on its future.
The overall project is being led by Tipperary Town Revitalisation Task Force in collaboration with the West End Residents Committee, Light Up the Plan Committee, Tipperary Tidy Towns, Tipperary County Council and Tipperary Town Heritage Group. Funding totalling € 17,650 was approved by South Tipperary Development Company under the Rural Development Programme / LEADER Programme in late 2021 for the project that will see an improved design developed for the area. Applegreen (Limerick Road, Tipperary Town) are part sponsoring the project and provided tea and coffee to everyone that came along on the morning to meet with the design team and share their views. There is also an online and paper-based survey being undertaken as part of the project, this can be found on the Task Force social media pages and in the office and will be distributed to residents in the area.
Task Force Manager Michael Begley stated the importance of this consultation phase in the overall development of the project ‘This is people’s chance to shape the future of a very important piece of community infrastructure in Tipperary Town. The Plan is a much-loved local amenity that is used by young and old as a place to relax and enjoy, as well as being a wonderful place for community events. The aim of this project is to ensure that the space works for the community and visitors long into the future, but in order to do that we really need people to come forward with their ideas now. Saturday is a great opportunity to meet the design team directly for a chat about what they’d like to see at ‘The Plan’ in the future”.
As part of their work Drake Hourigan will be carrying out a full survey of the park including structural surveys of the bandstand, pathways, furniture, and boundary wall as well as examining an issue with drainage at the park. The new design will be based on this work and the feedback from the community, while also taking in to account the fascinating history of ‘The Plan’ and its links to the ‘Plan of Campaign’ which was the land agitation that took place nationally in the later part of the nineteenth Century and was played out in particular, with the building of ‘New Tipperary ‘nearby – the tenants abandoning their shops on the main street in solidarity with the tenants on the Ponsonby estate in County Cork, the shopkeepers built a shopping arcade known as the William O’Brien arcade (the first shopping centre of its kind) as well as two streets known as Dillon & Emmett Streets, which have changed very little in the intervening years. These events garnered huge national and international attention at the time are documented extensively in Dr. Des Marane’s book Land & Violence.
The Design Team are expected to make an initial design available in the coming weeks, at which point another open consultation will be held at ‘The Plan’ to get further feedback from the community.
You can access the online survey below or by using this link.
tipptownrevitalisation.ie 