‘Flower Hill is our top priority in Navan’

EFFORTS are being made to attract a substantial slice of the €2 billion, recently allocated by the government for urban regeneration, to Navan.

An application for funding for a massive project on Flower Hill will be made shortly.
Business owners, landowners and the local community, as well as elected representatives and Council officials attended a meeting in Buvinda House last week where the scheme was explained.
Meath County Council will apply for funding for technical assistance to bring forward a plan next year for the regeneration of the Flower Hill area from the river up taking in the Hill and the greenfield areas on the Rathaldron side.
“Flower Hill is our number one priority in Navan,” said Meath County Council Director of Services, Kevin Stewart.
“There is a huge amount of dereliction in the area.”
He explained that this year they are looking for funding to draw up a master plan to see how the area could be re-developed so that they can apply with a ready to go project for next year’s round of funding.
“We are looking at big projects with a public spend of around €2million, which would be matched by private investment,” he said.
He said last week’s meeting was very positive.
“There was a great willingness to do something now. People are willing to follow through,” he said.


The urban regeneration scheme is aimed at regeneration of brownfield and town centre sites and the first call for proposals have been made.
The Mayor of Navan, Cllr Jim Holloway, said he had no doubt that the bid being made by the local authority and interested parties would involve a draw down of far in excess of the minimum €2 million available for this project.
“The vision is for a business and residential community served by multi-modal forms of transport that are effective and sustainable as well as levels of retail and other forms of business and services appropriate to a residential community.
“Key to this is an architecture of the highest order in a living environment. The transformation envisaged is for a neighbourhood that is enhanced and can deliver on a safe and most desirable place to live and do business. All this can happen,” he said.
“The bid for the funding is competitive and the short timeframe in which to prepare this will involve very long hours of work by officials, consultants and all parties involved in this project,” he concluded.

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