Re: Re: well what about the developments popping up in the shannonside ?

Fitzgerald Report (City Centre versus Suburbs)

2.6 Negative Impacts on Limerick City

Local community representatives are frustrated with the negative image portrayed of their areas as a result of the activities of a minority.

In Limerick more generally there has been a shift in the focus of commercial activity away from the city centre to outlying shopping centres. For example, retail rents in the city centre are uniquely, for a city of its size, below the levels in outlying shopping centres (see Appendix 7).

The scale of the criminal, social, and economic problems in areas such as Moyross, Ballinacurra/ Weston and Southill, and their spread, is not only a blight on the communities that have to live there but, left unchecked, could pose a real threat to commercial and social life in Limerick city as a whole.

This interesting retail rental statistic again reflects our doughnut shaped city due to the three local authorities that run (ruin) it. Peculiarly Limerick is the only city where the retail rental rates are higher in the suburbs than in it’s city centre core. Dublin, Belfast, Cork, Galway and Waterford all reflect a healthy 2:1 ratio in favour of their city centre cores.

Residents living in the Raheen, Castletroy, Caherdavin and Parteen suburbs and their local councillors cannot afford to have their heads buried in the sand when it comes to the long overdue boundary extension in order that one local authority administers the city for the common good of all. Fitzgerald’s report warns of complacency for the city’s well being and even that of the region itself!

3.7 Develop the Region

There is a clear need for the development of regional strategies, particularly for housing and retail shopping. Limerick city has little further capacity for social housing within the boundary, and so regional approaches must be progressed with a view to putting an agreed strategy in place to be implemented by the relevant authorities in the region.

This will be critical to ensuring that the problems now being experienced are not repeated. All adjacent local authorities have a responsibility in this regard. Visionary plans for the Limerick region and the Limerick-Shannon Gateway rely on the long- term well being and protection of Limerick city centre.