Quay to success lies in our City Centre!

North Quays artist impression.

I read with interest last week’s blanket coverage around the purchase of the North Quays by Waterford Council or the fact it has now been stated that the Council will take control of the North Quays – two completely different scenarios. What this actually means for the City and County will no doubt come out over time and as they say the devil is always in the detail.

Of course the development of this prime real estate has to be warmly welcomed and yet we are already reading proposal from various sources that this option and that option would be the best for the City. But what surely matters is that this area of the City’s infrastructure is developed rapidly and must also be developed in such a way as not to stop the critical and much needed development of the actual City Centre – the very heart of Waterford.

There were many attention-grabbing reports last week including, what I think was a ridiculous suggestion, that DIT should get involved in this process. Now where is the sense in that when we have our own WIT is screaming for University status and yet we have a Councillor wanting to involve a Dublin third level institute in what has to be a jealously safeguarded Waterford City project! The mind boggles sometimes.

Bustling market in the City Centre.

The North Quays could and should be one of the most attractive areas of the City and has to be developed for the benefit of the City, the County and the South East and it has to be selfishly developed in this order of priority.

It would also be worthwhile finally tackling the issue of Ferrybank and the complicated legacy of should this area be part of the City or part of Kilkenny. I would hope that there will be an announcement around this topic, in the near future, and again I would hope that the decision will be made for the betterment of the City, County and South East.

Developing the North Quays will of course bring the north side of the river back into the heart of the City if developed sympathetically and correctly. And as I have said this can only be good for the future of Waterford City.

But what of the very heart of Waterford City, its City Centre, which has in many people’s eyes been neglected from development for many, many years?

Can we justify spending or investing more money in the development of the North Quays without first of all redeveloping our City Centre?

We now know that the development of the Viking Triangle (VK) which has been welcomed but has the VK area driven the much promised footfall back into the heart of our City Centre? Have we seen the promised connectivity between the VK and retail core of the City? And have we educated tourists to stopping in the City for more than a few hours to ultimately staying a few nights in our City hotels and accommodation providers?

These questions must be answered before we rush to develop the North Quays. We have been quite rightly told for years that out of City development will not be permitted as this will destroy the very heart of our City Centre and yet we have failed to see equal investment support for the City Centre when compared to areas such as the VK and now perhaps the North Quay.

Blackfriars.

We cannot keep going on ignoring the fact that the City Centre needs investment, the City Centre needs to incentivise new retailers and the City Centre needs to have lower commercial rates to encourage retail and service industry investment. These plans have to be implemented otherwise we will see yet another area of the City be developed to the detriment of the City Centre. At a time when we need to be concentrating on creating the most attractive City Centre in Ireland and creating an experience that is uniquely Waterford focused will we be distracted by this exciting new project that has now appeared on the horizon?

There is limited funding available for every type of development and the simple fact is that we cannot be sidetracked and surely our priority now has to the City Centre’s development.

Without a vibrant City Centre we will not attract investment, we will not attract tourists, and we will not attract the people of Waterford into our City. The vivacity of the City Centre cannot be underestimated and when I walk in to the City at the start of the week or in the evenings and see just how quiet it is it begs the question “Have we collectively forgotten about developing OUR City Centre?”

The black fountain/obelisk does not work, the “car wash” on Broad Street has never worked, we have crocked lighting pillars in George’s Street, Blackfriars is very uninviting and so on and so on.

Purple Flag for Waterford City.

We have literally spent thousands of Euro investing in the Purple Flag initiative and thankfully this achieved an accredited award. However, the flag is flying rather limply now and this is in part due to a lack of external communication outside of the stakeholder group. Now is the time to bring home ALL our birds to roost and play to our strengths and deliver a City Centre worthy of this Purple Flag award. If we do not invest now in the City Centre we will very quickly come to the stage where we have deliberately created our own City Centre doughnut with an empty centre and lots of exciting opportunities around the periphery.

This course of action will over time once and for all “kill” our City Centre and there will be no recovery from such a doomsday scenario. If we are not careful and if we as citizens do not have our say then it may well be too late for all of us to see the genuine regeneration of the Waterford City Centre.

Waterford City South Quay at night.

In a time when there is so much pressure of inter-web shopping we must create a shopping experience like no other and we must give the very best service to every single customer that comes to Waterford. Until we are prepared to go that extra mile how can we expect others to travel ten of hundreds of miles to visit our historic City?

OUR City Centre has been crying out for urgent investment for a number of years and the money must be found to ensure the City Centre at the very least keeps pace with the VK and any proposed North Quays development.

Do we take the very innovative step of claiming back the South Quays as well and once and for all introduce affordable car parking to drive footfall back into the City Centre. This of course would be too easy and too simplistic – or would it?

Finally, we must all remember that without a healthy heart no one can survive!