Waterford developments

jelutong

Is the site not for sale since 2021? Nothing stopping the Council from buying it.

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121076896#Comment_121076896

they probably should at this stage, it has incredible potential, think id be going for a cpo, if possible....

914

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121076896#Comment_121076896

I'd imagine a lack of money is stopping them from purchasing it.

So then CPO, that can be another long game and fully dependent on government funding so I can not see the council getting their hands on it.

Even if they somehow managed to purchase the land they would still require a private developer, look at Michael St, how long has that been in council ownership and it is still idle.

Unfortunately we needed someone with money and a vision to buy the site, I always thought with the amount of land surely a 4 star, 5 star hotel would work well there, have a really good spa and terminal suite, have a kids play area, something along the lines of the amber springs in Wexford.

Maybe once the pedestrian bridge opens it will become a more attractive site.

Valhalla90

Hopefully with the new access from the new bridge and the train station relocation it will make this site more appealing. The views from that building are unbelievable. Imagine a rooftop restaurant and bar it has so much potential.

Wanderer78

works being done, definitely makes the site far more appealing, id imagine something will eventually be done with it

Dunmoreroader

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121071856#Comment_121071856

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121075025#Comment_121075025

😏 My bad! I'd be pedantic too if the shoe was on the other foot! 😉

Dunmoreroader

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121079175#Comment_121079175

Wouldn't even need a rooftop bar/restaurant, the views from the old ground floor restaurant were great anyway.

DylanQuestion

I visited Waterford City for possibly the first time ever a few weeks ago. We stayed for two days/one night, and that was enough.

The positives. The city centre is extremely clean. Scarily so. It’s well designed, extremely pedestrian friendly and just a pleasant experience. There are a lot of museums, and they’re not very expensive. The city is quite nice, and it’s small enough to get around easily. The Waterford Walls are a really unique attraction, and bring you to parts of the city centre and inner city you’d otherwise never go near

The negatives/areas that can be improved. Other than the four/five museums, that took like an hour or two to do, and the Viking Experience, which took maybe 30 minutes to do, there was nothing interesting to do. Owe were quite bored. There aren’t many interesting buildings to look at, and the city centre is so small you can’t really stroll around. The shopping offering isn’t all that great either, so you can’t really do browsing. Once nighttime came, the place felt like a ghost town (and it was a Saturday).. We found it very difficult to find a restaurant at night (places were either booked out or we were walking for quite a while before coming across one). The food in the three places we went was below average. The riverside is a disgrace. There is a huge river at the doorstep of the city centre, and instead of being a park, or even just a nice footpath and cycling area like Dublin, Cork and Limerick, it’s a huge car park. It looks terrible and you’d never really notice there is even a river there considering the city centre turns its back to it. Also, getting out of the train station by car was next to impossible without having someone being kind enough to let us onto the roundabout

azimuth17

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121128333#Comment_121128333

Thanks for the commments. Damning with faint praise? I presume you didnt notice that half the south side river side and the whole north side is taken up with development works aimed at commencing the kind of riverside you resommend?

BBM77

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121128333#Comment_121128333

What has any of this got to do with Waterford developments?

gw80

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121128333#Comment_121128333

Hang on, so the place was like a ghost town and restaurants were booked out at the same time?

Valhalla90

The city is undergoing huge change. Train station being relocated. The area around the Clock Tower is a construction site with the new bridge. I agree with the retail offering it is poor and lacks the big names. Hopefully this will change soon. Interesting times as we await the final planning designs from harcourt. Things are on the up. Waterford is also the fastest growing city population wise!

DylanQuestion

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121128585#Comment_121128585

Yes, and the same with Cork and I’m sure the other cities too. I’m just speaking about what exists, not what is planned - as what is planned (see Cork’s three skyscrapers) might never happen

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121128604#Comment_121128604

Absolutely nothing, I just wanted to share and thought this would be a relevant thread

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121128949#Comment_121128949

I meant the streets. There was a big crowd around (I think) High Street with a band playing, and a lot of people by the Apple Market with another band playing. And the car park was full. But in between those areas on the streets, it felt weirdly empty. Not like a Saturday night in Cork or Dublin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121129234#Comment_121129234

Absolutely. Reading back, my post was more negative than I planned on it being, so I am sorry. I know there are huge plans between the university, airport and the North Docks. I’m just speaking though about the as-is. As an outsider looking in and visiting the city, while I definitely enjoyed my time there and have a lot of good stuff to say about the place, I was a little bored. Just pointing out the flaws I saw with the place too :)

azimuth17

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121129265#Comment_121129265

Bring on the dancing girls? I was bored? Of all the complaints about Waterford I ever heard, to suggest it doesnt have a quantum of interesting buildings is very wide of the mark.

DylanQuestion

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121129462#Comment_121129462

Such as?

azimuth17

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121129613#Comment_121129613

Start at ST Saviours Dominican Church in Bridge Street, O'Connell Street...Jacob (Cream crackers) family home, Downes Pub, Garter Lane 1, Granary building in Hanover Street, Garter Lane 2 theatre , Meaghers Pub. Tullys Pub, Waterford Gallery of Art, Port of Waterford Building, Beech Tower and city walls , TH Doolans , J^K Walshs, St Patricks Chruch (oldest catholic urban church in Ireland), Barrondtrand STreet, RC Cathedral, first one built post reformation in Ireland, Blackfriars church. St Olaf's church, Franciscan Friary of 1834, Viking Triangle has Cof I cathedral, House of John Rberts which is occuied by the Fat Angel, Chairman's Arch, the new Irish Wake Museum which occupies the Gods mens House of 1485, Deanery and national silver museum, Medieval Museum and Choristers Hall, mayoral exhibition in Theatre Roal foyer, Greyfriars, Clock Museum, Jordans Pub,, Reginald's Tower, Reg Bar and city Wall, Munster bar Balieys New Street, Franciscan medieval ruins, Statue of Luke Wadding, Viking Interpretative house, Bishops Palace, City Wall and Black Arch, City Hall on Mall, 33 The Mall where national flag hung for frst time, Equestrian statue of TF Meagher, Sabai Thai house where TF Megaher was arrested for treason, Catherne Street..Kellys Garage of 1900..first garage in Ireland, Court House and Peoples Park, St Catherines Hall and Sunday school, Waterside and Johns Bridge (one of the oldest bridges in ireland) Watch Tower and walls in Railway Square, City Walls in Castle street etc. Otherwise, get the Waterford Walls app and follow their wall murals. Or the Waterford Civic Trust blue plaque trail. Is that enough?

nomoedoe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121128333#Comment_121128333

What were the three places you got the food?

DylanQuestion

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121131683#Comment_121131683

Woodlands Hotel & Leisure Centre, Bodéga and one of the places in the food court on Great George's Street

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121130847#Comment_121130847

I think you are confused by what I said. I am talking about large scale, interesting, well detailed buildings, like Custom House in Dublin, the City Halls in Cork and Dublin, O'Connell Street and Dame Street in Dublin, Patrick Street in Cork, etc. Your list has some buildings like that, and maybe I should have been clearer. The vast majority though are bang average buildings you'd see in all Irish cities and probably most towns, i.e. nothing that stands out. Still, you went to the effort of typing them all out so the least I could do is repsond to each one:

https://justpaste.it/c1qli

I looked at all of the Waterford Murals and already mentioned them, they're great and a unique way of bringing people to parts of the city centre they would otherwise have no reason to go to. I don't particularly care about plaques

bamayang

I’ve never seen Waterford people so united in defence of the city!

azimuth17

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121131965#Comment_121131965

Im beginning to think you are just stirring? Waterford is not Dublin or Cork in terms of size or scale but has as much interesting stuff as Dublin pro rata and more than Cork in my view.

DylanQuestion

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121132640#Comment_121132640

I’m not stirring at all. I was just giving my opinion, and it got out of hand. Sorry for derailing the thread, I’ll leave now

spankmemunkey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121131965#Comment_121131965

I wud say just stop putting your outsider constructive criticism views on here, youll only upset the locals!!😅 most people born and bred in waterford dont want to hear anyone critiquing their county boi no matter how much sense you make😅

azimuth17

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121140613#Comment_121140613

Really? No one has ever denied the deficits this area suffers from and people are happy to hear constructive criticism. That is obvious from posts over the years here. You are on this forum long enough, even if you are not from here, to honestly know and acknowledge that. The general tone of your contributions is miserable, whether or not you use Smiley emojis.

spankmemunkey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121141001#Comment_121141001

no i just think people who express any type of negative or criticism in attempt to point out where it could be better get completely rounded on and lambasted, the poster is expressing the positives and negatives he witnessed in waterford and hes not doin it to wind people up, hes cone back to try explain things from his point of view as an outsider looking in and hes been rounded on and jeered off.

azimuth17

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121141514#Comment_121141514

OP must be a sensitive soul. He spent a couple of lines on positives and paragraphs on negatives. He offered an opinion, I dont agree with him and as a local I feel I am just as entitled to rebut his comments. Of course there are negatives and deficits in Waterford. No one ever denied that.We all see them, retail in the city centre being a case in point! You seem to think we should just roll over when some one makes negatve comments. That's not how life works and OP should perhaps learn how to tread softly on other peoples' homes! I tried to offer a coherent response, but OP didnt want that either. When I was first going away to work as a youngster my dad told me never to insult, even in banter, where a person was from, town, city, village or mud hut. Be it ever so humble etc. Unfortunately, Irish GAA driven parochialism seems to cater for and encourage those who feel otherwise.

I dont know if you have access to the Irish Arts Review but a series of articles in its summer edition about Waterford city are highly complimentary. You might like to have a look.

Bards

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121141645#Comment_121141645

100%, and I bet if the shoe was on the other foot and someone posted a negative commentary from the OPs homestead it would not be taken as constructive criticism either... Do onto others as how you would like to be treated and the world would be a better place

Edit :There's nothing to do here boi

There's 2 x theatres, 2 x cinemas, 7 museums, lots of old world pubs, Waterford historic walls, Reginalds tower. The Greenway, comeragh mountains, beaches, fishing village of Dunmore East.. Yeah I agree nothing to do at all

914

We are all well aware of issues in Waterford, retail and the city centre being a ghost town after 6pm is two prime examples.

What does the OP achieve by posting here? What impact does his post have on Waterford?

Nothing.

If I visited another town/city I don't think I would go and find that respective space on boards and post my positives and negatives.

If I did I am looking to have three possible outcomes

1. Tell the locals how great their town/city is as I just fell in love with the place

2. Have a sly dig at their city/town and saying how my area is better than yours

3. Look to have locals defend their area and point out attractions that I might have missed

If the issue generally concerned the OP or me, then popping an email to the local council, tourism board would be a far better approach than doing it on boards.

Christ one of OPs issues was the car parks on the Quays. I don't think anyone in Waterford ever celebrated this or was proud of the fact that we have a kilometre long car park on our waterfront, it's just stating the obvious.

That would be like going into the Cork thread and saying "I can't believe the entrance into cork City is an old disused dock over looking the river, this area should be a parkland with lovely apartments and a marina"

Obviously it should but all these things take time, money, vision and planning.

hardybuck

This thread is about Waterford developments. Many here are agreed that Waterford has issues in terms of the 5.30pm exodus that happens in the evenings when the shops close.

This is a product of planning decisions over the last 20-30 years which has enabled the unabated sprawl of residential developments further and further out beyond the ring roads while much of the urban centre has had issues in terms of dereliction and access (due to all the cars trying to drive in from the suburbs).

I note that the Council got a €9m in Government funding this year to tackle the issues of dereliction and boost housing stock in the metropolitan area this year, and the only Council that got a higher grant was Dublin City Council. I'm pleased to see that much more residential stock will be part of the North Quays project also - and this is the kind of stuff that needs to happen for more life to be breathed into the city - particularly in terms of the night time economy.

azimuth17

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121142146#Comment_121142146

I mostly agree, but as long as two storey semis are the desired property it has been hard to change. Council was left with little alternative as two storey housing estates of semis cannot be densified.

hardybuck

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121142629#Comment_121142629

There's a little bit of chicken and egg to it.

You're absolutely right that the semi-detached houses in the subarbs have been more popular. However, it's the job of the Councils to zone land and stimulate growth in the right places.

I think we can agree that there's been some progress in making parts of town more attractive in recent years, and they really need to drive that on further to make more parts of town 'lived spaces' and more attractive to would be residents.