One of the objectives of the Public Realm Plan was to try to inliven and reinvigorate the historic core town centre, which had suffered much over the preceding decade, notwithstanding the Celtic Tiger economy that prevailed at the time. This thinking group reached out and joined forces with Balbriggan Town Council, Fingal County Council and the Heritage Council and acquired funding of 30k to have a Public Realm plan written for the town centre. The Heritage Council is sponsoring the development of Public Realm Plans in historic towns throughout Ireland and Balbriggan is the sixth such plan to be written.

The Public Realm can best be described as the form and use of outdoor areas and spaces that are accessible to the public. This includes many familiar types of places such as streetscapes, squares, parks, car parks and beaches, as well as the physical and visual connections between them and also the built environment. People choose to spend more time in high quality public spaces and streets, stopping to linger rather than utilising streets and spaces merely as thoroughfares, thereby contributing to both the vibrancy and vitality of town centres and also to developing community spirit and awareness of place. Quality Public Realm can provide the venue for all activities, including commerce, recreation, education and public form.

A public tendering process followed and manifested in excess of 30 expressions of interest from multi faceted parties with regard to writing the plan. This reaction ensured that though funding was not extensive, the town was going to get significant “bang for its buck” and a short list of 5 tenders was agreed upon. Ultimately a team headed by Loci were appointed. The team consisted of Loci (planning and urban design consultants), Optimize (economic development marketing and tourism consultants), Ait Urbanisma and landscapes (urban and landscape designers) and Michael Cregan & Assoc., (national heritage consultants).

“One of its principal objectives was to try to enliven
and reinvigorate the historic core town centre”

The team set about writing the public realm plan for Balbriggan which included a Town Centre Health Check, Pedestrian Flow Analysis, Traffic Flow Monitoring, Public Workshops, stakeholders meetings etc. Loci also recognised the imperative to have feedback from younger people and though their budget was constrained in this regard, Aoife Banim (local architect) undertook to assist with the process and has engaged with all schools in the area and is feeding this information back to Loci. Aoife was subsequently co-opted onto the Council of the Chamber of Commerce.

Talk of the plan has invigorated many people and we are already witnessing spin off projects such as a painting scheme to tidy up the existing shopfronts in the town centre to compliment the significant road and path improvement works recently completed by Fingal County Council.

A traders group has established contact with Fingal County Council, throught the Chamber and we are hopeful they can deliver half an hour free parking in the town centre to facilitate the local traders. Embryonic work has commenced on the establishment of Historical/Heritage walks and a Sli na Slainte route.

Written by
John Cumiskey