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Suggestions for improving Castlebar
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05-03-2021 7:08pm#1For anyone with ideas of how to improve Castlebar Town and it's environs now is your chance to be heard.
Observations and Submissions can be made to the Pre-Draft Local Area Plan. This will decide the future direction and development of Castlebar.
https://consult.mayo.ie/en/consultation/pre-draft-issues-paper-castlebar-town-environs-local-area-plan-2021-2027
Online submissions can be made on anything and I've listed a few random questions below as examples they're looking for feedback and input on. The last date for submissions is 4pm on Wednesday the 7th April 2021 so plenty of time.
Q. What are the priorities for housing in Castlebar, in terms of size & type of housing?
Q. Are more town centre apartments needed, family housing or specialist housing, for example older people?
Q. Where in Castlebar should additional population and economic growth be focused?
Q. Are there areas that have the potential to be developed for tourism and recreational purposes?
Q. Are there areas where new or improved footpaths, cycle ways, parking, roadways and links to public transport services should be provided?
Q. How do you see the completion of the N5 project impacting on the future development of the town?
Q. What do you see as the main infrastructural deficiencies, if any, impacting on the future sustainable development of the town?
Q. What type of new community facilities should be provided and where should these be located?
Q. Are there enough facilities for younger and older residents of the town, and people with disabilities?
Q. Would pedestrianisation of Main Street improve the retail experience within the town?
Lots of other questions and as you can see cover a huge range of issues. You can see submissions by others here: https://consult.mayo.ie/en/node/360/submissions3
Comments
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I think that the town is an unattractive place to be by evening. All the coffee shops shut by 6, there are no places to eat (apart from horrible burger joints) that aren't proper shirt and tie restaurants.
I think the town has no real 'centre', no night scene centre. All the venues are spread all over the town from west to east.
I think the sports centres are a bit exclusive. I think the Tennis club is too expensive and caters to more middle class types.
Even the new council run sports gym gives off vibes of exclusiveness. A not for everybody type of place
But I think the worst think about Castlebar is the way the whole town seems to shut down after 6.
Personally I don't see why clothing shops don't say open till 8. If they opened at 12 and shut at 8, then people who work 9 to 5 could go out later in the evening, if only window shopping, and take in a coffee and a bite to eat somewhere that was a casual restaurant in a nice environment. Maybe that kind of scene is not possible in a small town, I dunno.0 -
Thanked AllForIt's post above as they have hit the nail on the head on my feelings towards the town and I've only been a visitor with my trips to Castlebar.
No Town Centre designation is a tough one, I've ended up parking beside the church behind The Olive Tree restaurant as the best spot for getting around the town on foot. Supervalu car park can be manic when I've parked there.
The after 6pm points are tough but I really can't see any way to change that, business footfall just drops so much in an open to 8 or 9pm store/cafe.
I was dropping in to post that an investment in the children's park at the swimming pool/ holiday hostel would be a great benefit. Plenty of space around for expansion of both park and car parking.
Have really loved my trips to Castlebar but if I was a visitor that didn't have some previous experience of the town or good access to Google Maps then I could imagine getting frustrated very quickly.0 -
For cycling infrastructure, the Greenway through the Town could be made a lot clearer. I can navigate very well as the crow flies and I had to double back and get on the correct course. I would've been back on the Greenway if I'd have continued soon enough but for Beginner Cyclists it can cause plenty of confusion.0
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As a previous college student and now resident "Town" reminds me of Brussels. Its busy and bustling during the day and dies at 6pm.
The streets dont entice you to walk through them, the facades of the pubs or restaurants are cold and not welcoming.
The only real life is around Tesco area and then from night time its buzzing around lough lanagh whether its the pool, tennis club or the lake walks.
Does the council care, I think they do, they have a massive volunteer "Love Castlebar", Tidy Towns who do trojan work but unlike Westport who have been brilliant in utilizing what they have and maximizing the TDs, the grants, the media etc etc. Westport are looking to roof an area now, they have markets/stalls every other day, the promote local, they encourage change.
The footfall is there, even in the burger joints so the people are around but its too spread out, no focal point, the community isn't living and breathing it.
Its multi facaded the issues and solutions. I'm not involved enough to know what all these are but they need to be addressed as the town will become the next dead town where no one will come out after 6.
The 3 areas for me to address:
Push for the greenway connection to Westport, get what they have over to Cbar, which is people and money. If u have no accommodation in Westport or its too dear, then make sure they come to Cbar, the number of people who come here to use the Greenway is incredible. So you then provide the cheaper offering of accommodation and they can cycle out through town, down by Lough Lanangh towards Islandeady to Westport/Louisburgh/NewPort/Achill or you connect via the Newport road but you HAVE to connect to the big tourist points.
Lough Lanagh: I mentioned this on a thread here a few weeks ago and I see Blackie has brought this up now.. coincidence... Blackie *cough cough*. I'm kidding btw.
So there is a massive lake on the doorstep. During the summer the courses there for the kids are booked out. The plans for the outdoor adventure water area is a big one. Its an attraction like in Athlone.
Extend the walk ways out as far as they can get. Offer pop-up tents/stalls to local people to trade their foods on them. Pay a per day rate. This will attract people.
That green area to the left on the way down to Lough Lanangh. Use it. Carpark/skate park/pop up food area again. But don't leave it.
Lough Lanagh Village. Not sure who owns it, but for the times I walk through it is quite, lifeless etc. **I stand corrected**, but do something here. Use that space, use the area, get people in.
Lough Lanagh is a massive asset to have, but its not utilized what so ever.
Pedrestrianize/roof main street:
I feel sorry for the trades people here, I know a few personally and they are brilliant and trying their best to run a business.
With the new road then the traffic on the ring road won't be as much, then they can reroute main st traffic off. Galway CITY did it, if a City can do it then I'm sure Cbar can do it.
Get areas covered if possible. Push the people onto the streets, with what has happened with Covid the indoor trade will lessen until confidence returns. So u need this. Most of the street is closed out to parking anyway .
My own thoughts but as someone who has been part of Castlebar for nearly 30 years then I've seen where the town was at the peak back in the 90's and how its changed since.
I've too been part of committees and events in Westport and I can see the absolutely determination involved to ensure that events succeed and every person and their euro is encouraged to return again and again.0 -
While I’ve visited Castlebar many times I wouldn’t know it well enough to place intelligent suggestions here specific to Castlebar- but as a general thought for all small towns and villages, getting life back into the main st, should be a priority- footfall means business - without footfall, you don’t have business.
I think a combination of new remote working hubs, living accommodation and pedestrianised streets with on street sheltered eating areas should all be considered before building yet more housing estates etc around towns- rejuvenate and reinvent what’s there already and don’t allow other building until this is well under way- carrots AND sticks.0 -
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The biggest shame was the council looking for huge fees for development of at least 3 buildings on main street and they wonder why the buildings are falling down. The huge fees meant appeals to ABP and delays.
The worst one was the old bakery, imagine having the river open and i think it was a bar/restaurant down there with a nice area to sit out in the summer. sure the river isnt pretty but its better than nothing and it would have opened up the walk greenway there.
Another was the 2 shops that burnt down years ago, i can't remember the 3rd one.
All well and good having these plans but if they are been stopped and delayed by development fees its going to be a long wait.
The new bypass could spell disaster for the town also.0 -
Some great ideas here,
really like the designated food/drink stall's at Lough Lannagh.
The lake walk should be extended around the rest of the lake further west
The turlough Greenway needs to be connected with the great western greenway asap and fully completed thought Castlebar,
Great idea about pedestrianising the main Street, just look at quay Street in Galway city or the promenade at the quay Westport for ideas of what it could look like, they could put up the marquee they had for the Castlebar food festival on main street permanently0 -
Housing to me is the crux of the issue, a quick look on Daft and you only have 6 apartments of which seem to have a very high turnover of tenants and 2 houses to rent in Castlebar, as for houses to buy there is currently just a handful of new builds coupled with many overpriced large family homes and poorly constructed late 90s builds.
With a lack of housing it is harder to keep people in the town and entice others to move here which causes stagnation and a aging population, to have a thriving vibrant social scene and innovative commerce you need to have a constant turnover of new blood and new ideas.
Housing needs to focus first on grassroots, people in their 20s or 30s who are looking to buy their first house, not large expensive family homes but starter homes.
New apartment developments are a must as well, if the the Barracks project ever got off the ground I would love the area to be a mix of residential, cultural and hospitality buildings.0 -
Housing to me is the crux of the issue, a quick look on Daft and you only have 6 apartments of which seem to have a very high turnover of tenants and 2 houses to rent in Castlebar, as for houses to buy there is currently just a handful of new builds coupled with many overpriced large family homes and poorly constructed late 90s builds.
With a lack of housing it is harder to keep people in the town and entice others to move here which causes stagnation and a aging population, to have a thriving vibrant social scene and innovative commerce you need to have a constant turnover of new blood and new ideas.
Housing needs to focus first on grassroots, people in their 20s or 30s who are looking to buy their first house, not large expensive family homes but starter homes.
New apartment developments are a must as well, if the the Barracks project ever got off the ground I would love the area to be a mix of residential, cultural and hospitality buildings.
With the exception of the Barack's if you were head planner what lands around Castlebar would you zone residential to encourage new house building? Saying we need housing is one thing (which I agree with) but we also need to zone lands where it needs to be built and that's what a local area development plan is all about.
Not trying to be critical of your post, just trying to get more of your suggestions which you obviously have knowledge and an opinion on.0 -
Sooner or later planners are going to have to realise that bricks and mortar shops are a thing of the past. These vacant streets should be filled with big apartment complexes. Bring back vibrancy by actively incentivizing town center living.0
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Not from Castlebar but I would visit the town often. First up it’s great positive news for the new funding for redevelopment of the military barracks and Daly’s Hotel.
My own opinion, growing up and to this day we would have always gone to Westport or Galway for a night out...Castlebar just never entered the equation. I don’t know if Castlebar can compete with Westport for nightlife as if would require a proper nightclub and a few new bars..:who is going to open a bar or nightclub the way things are going?
A Pedestrianised Main Street is a must. I always felt the Mall is kind of a waste...you drive past it. It could have become a mini Eyre Square but would require a focus on hospitality and retail.
With the new Dual Carriageway Westport and Castlebar will be even closer. Has this the potential to damage nightlife in Castlebar further? It has to be the quietest county town at night in the country.0 -
Not from Castlebar but I would visit the town often. First up it’s great positive news for the new funding for redevelopment of the military barracks and Daly’s Hotel.
My own opinion, growing up and to this day we would have always gone to Westport or Galway for a night out...Castlebar just never entered the equation. I don’t know if Castlebar can compete with Westport for nightlife as if would require a proper nightclub and a few new bars..:who is going to open a bar or nightclub the way things are going?
A Pedestrianised Main Street is a must. I always felt the Mall is kind of a waste...you drive past it. It could have become a mini Eyre Square but would require a focus on hospitality and retail.
With the new Dual Carriageway Westport and Castlebar will be even closer. Has this the potential to damage nightlife in Castlebar further? It has to be the quietest county town at night in the country.
There is an argument for and against as to whether the dual carriageway can help improve the town, social life is one facet but it is right across the board, both towns should in theory become more attractive for FDI which would mean they'd become more attractive places to live. As a regional-hub it would hopefully give people from various parts of the county the opportunity to stay and set up within Mayo. Despite the protestations nationally it really is an essential piece of infrastructure for the future of the West.
In developed economies of Western Europe, the West, North-West and border areas of Ireland, are consistently one of the most impoverished and underdeveloped.
As far as night life is concerned for Castlebar, it is probably a case of change the quality of what's on offer if things are to improve. Over 20 years ago Castlebar had brilliant nightlife, hard to believe now but it was superior to Wesport.
In the meantime with cultural changes and the town not improving what's on offer, Castlebar has gone back, whereas Wesport has seen its hospitality/nightlife in accordance with a booming tourist industry become essential to the towns economy.0 -
Housing to me is the crux of the issue, a quick look on Daft and you only have 6 apartments of which seem to have a very high turnover of tenants and 2 houses to rent in Castlebar, as for houses to buy there is currently just a handful of new builds coupled with many overpriced large family homes and poorly constructed late 90s builds.
With a lack of housing it is harder to keep people in the town and entice others to move here which causes stagnation and a aging population, to have a thriving vibrant social scene and innovative commerce you need to have a constant turnover of new blood and new ideas.
Housing needs to focus first on grassroots, people in their 20s or 30s who are looking to buy their first house, not large expensive family homes but starter homes.
New apartment developments are a must as well, if the the Barracks project ever got off the ground I would love the area to be a mix of residential, cultural and hospitality buildings.
I completely agree that housing is pretty poor in town. I think that's a leftover from the boom times when it was thrown up anywhere and without much quality involved... But that's common in towns up and down the country.
As someone who moved back a few years ago, a decent family home to rent was very hard to come by. But we didn't move back for a nice house (initially), we moved back because we wanted to get out of Dublin and once we had jobs down here, we did so immediately.
People follow jobs rather than nice housing, turnover of people comes with a steady turnover of jobs and employment is the crux of the issue imo. Housing tends to react to it.0 -
Interesting idea this by as one of the submissions to turn the old swimming pool into a skate park. Went to a lot of effort:
https://consult.mayo.ie/en/system/files/materials/360/914/About%20Project%20X%20%286%29_Redacted.pdf
As a reminder any of the ideas above won't be included unless an actual submission is made. You can see the other submissions here: https://consult.mayo.ie/en/node/360/submissions
They've also opened up one now on Westport too:
https://consult.mayo.ie/en/consultation/pre-draft-issues-paper-westport-town-environs-local-area-plan-2021-20270 -
Moderators, Home & Garden Moderators, Regional Midwest Moderators, Regional West Moderators Posts: 16,722 Mod ✭✭✭✭ Join Date:Posts: 15161
Interesting idea this by as one of the submissions to turn the old swimming pool into a skate park. Went to a lot of effort:
https://consult.mayo.ie/en/system/files/materials/360/914/About%20Project%20X%20%286%29_Redacted.pdf
As a reminder any of the ideas above won't be included unless an actual submission is made. You can see the other submissions here: https://consult.mayo.ie/en/node/360/submissions
They've also opened up one now on Westport too:
https://consult.mayo.ie/en/consultation/pre-draft-issues-paper-westport-town-environs-local-area-plan-2021-2027
Love the idea of the skate part, from what I see in Westport it has turned that area into a really safe, hive of activity for the youths. My son loves it and then there is a access to the greenway from it.
Have to applaud that effort there, hope they make a success of it.
With the running track at St Marys, the lake, swimming pool, tennis courts etc not too far away that could really bring about big change.
The funding could be the killer though with Covid going to curtail a good bit of funding.0 -
yop wrote:Love the idea of the skate part, from what I see in Westport it has turned that area into a really safe, hive of activity for the youths. My son loves it and then there is a access to the greenway from it. Have to applaud that effort there, hope they make a success of it. With the running track at St Marys, the lake, swimming pool, tennis courts etc not too far away that could really bring about big change. The funding could be the killer though with Covid going to curtail a good bit of funding.
I work in the community sector and if anything Covid has made funding much easier come by (for the moment anyway)
It is a great proposal. However the council have just received serious funding to turn the old post office in to a youth centre and there is a site earmarked by the new swimming pool for a skate park to fit in with the sports hub plan down there.
This will probably scupper the plan here.0 -
Id have to say that having lived there for a good few years i never felt that Castlebar had a great community spirit in itself- lots and lots of good people and groups but as a wider population the interest and pride in developing the place in the way that the populations of westport or newport or achill for example didnt always seem to be there- castlebar doesnt think like a town that wans people there nor coming back there.
Now that isnt obviously ingrained in the people naturally of course, but county plan wise castlebar was going back a long long time the place to shovel the shops, the industrial estates and the housing estates and the other towns were either kept as more touristy/planned or were denied that investment (depending on who you asked and when!)
It cant be denied that the town is laid out in a right mess and a sprawl if you think of it as starting at the breaffy roundabout across to the station and across again the westport road and around again to the sacred heart.
Its not easy to get between any two points, it doesnt have critical mass anywhere but tesco area which is congested and yet traffic is almost encouraged there. Its a big town by area and most of it is just ground you have to cover.
I think theres a few very good ideas here but westport didnt become westport overnight and theres a few big interests in cbar between building and planning and the few that had the town sewn up and having it their own way too long turned out to be very bad for the town- it would take more than any one idea or effort to get the town to a place where an outsider would see something to hang around for.
Agree that getting people living on main st and footfall through that area at different times of day is probably the no 1 priority, a lot could stem from there.0 -
My own opinion, growing up and to this day we would have always gone to Westport or Galway for a night out...Castlebar just never entered the equation. I don’t know if Castlebar can compete with Westport for nightlife as if would require a proper nightclub and a few new bars..:who is going to open a bar or nightclub the way things are going?
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Its hard to believe but as little as 15 years ago people would leave Westport to come to Castlebar for a night out. There were 2 nightclubs and 2 or 3 latebars then tho and really good pubs. In the meantime those nightclubs have closed down and the castle court has been done up twice!0 -
The above highlighted sentence could have been applied to Ballina for a long, long time, lots of groups but no joined up thinking, little cooperation.Deleted User wrote: »Id have to say that having lived there for a good few years i never felt that Castlebar had a great community spirit in itself- lots and lots of good people and groups but as a wider population the interest and pride in developing the place in the way that the populations of westport or newport or achill for example didnt always seem to be there- castlebar doesnt think like a town that wans people there nor coming back there.
Now that isnt obviously ingrained in the people naturally of course, but county plan wise castlebar was going back a long long time the place to shovel the shops, the industrial estates and the housing estates and the other towns were either kept as more touristy/planned or were denied that investment (depending on who you asked and when!)
It cant be denied that the town is laid out in a right mess and a sprawl if you think of it as starting at the breaffy roundabout across to the station and across again the westport road and around again to the sacred heart.
Its not easy to get between any two points, it doesnt have critical mass anywhere but tesco area which is congested and yet traffic is almost encouraged there. Its a big town by area and most of it is just ground you have to cover.
I think theres a few very good ideas here but westport didnt become westport overnight and theres a few big interests in cbar between building and planning and the few that had the town sewn up and having it their own way too long turned out to be very bad for the town- it would take more than any one idea or effort to get the town to a place where an outsider would see something to hang around for.
Agree that getting people living on main st and footfall through that area at different times of day is probably the no 1 priority, a lot could stem from there.
The last couple of years have seen a sea change in this. Pretty much every community group now actively works together.
The results are there for all to see, there is now a fantastic community spirit in the town, loads of positive recent devolopments, loads of community invlovment and loads more stuff in the pipeline.
there is a real feeling in the town that good things are happening and it is going places.
i believe this has come directly from the enhanced cooperation between different groups. why this has happened now im not sure. i have a sneaking suspision it might have to do with the removal of the town council, they had the power to achieve next to nothing but insisted on playing politics with everything they could touch. now this might be a bit harsh there were lots of good people involved in the council who are still involved in lots of community groups.0 -
Had a few ideas/observations put together for this but would not upload prior to deadline yesterday.0
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