Work on Enfield town centre revitalisation commences

Consultants have commenced work on the Enfield Town Centre First project, the pilot project in Meath under the Housing for All initiative which aims to revitalise town centres and tackle dereliction and vacant sites and make town centres more attractive for people to live and work in.

A total of 26 projects were chosen under the scheme- one in each county - with Enfield selected in County Meath.

Urban designers and landscape architects, Paul Hogarth and Company were recently appointed by Meath County Council and gave an introductory presentation to Trim Municipal District Councillors on Friday giving a broad outline of what the plan would involve, and highlighting how community engagement would play a central role in developing the plan.

The company has previously worked on the Flower Hill/Abbeylands Regeneration project.

James Hennessy of Paul Hogarth and Company gave an overview of the process and how they would be working with the local community create a vision for Enfield.

They recently had a walk around Enfield with council planners to get a feel for the place and Mr Hennessy said there were some thriving parts of the town centre and some great businesses, but they were also looking at some of the things that they may be addressing through the plan.

Like every main street in Irish towns, he said Enfield has a wide main street with a lot of space devoted to the car, and that this needed to be balanced with pedestrian space and cyclist space.

He also said they would look at how to make most of the harbour area and the investment and infrastructure there, as well as improving linkages to the town and how to help people walk and cycle into the town centre as easily as possible, to help alleviate pressures on traffic and car parking.

"We are engaging with the public right from the start, to start the conversation with the people of Enfield before we start developing plans," he said. The next step is to analyse the findings and developing a draft plan that would go back for consultation before it is finalised.

Public consultation will commence during the month of July with a drop-in event planned for 28th July which will be an opportunity for people to meet the consultants and have their say on what they would like to see happen in the town and what their priorities are.

An online survey will also take place with Mr Hennessy encouraging as many people as possible to engage with it. They will be also looking for expressions of interest from local people who would like to get involved with the town centre first team.

The consultants will come back to councillors with their findings following the initial public consultation and agree priorities for the plan. They will come back with the draft plan to make sure councillors are happy with it before it goes back out for public consultation.