Clare County Council will host an informal information session at the Oakwood Arms Hotel in Shannon on Thursday 12 January 2017 from 4.00 p.m. to 8.00 p.m. to present the latest plans for the proposed new Shannon Town Park.
As part of the €910,000 project, there will be an enhancement and incorporation of the existing town park woodland and the adjacent Rineanna Park into a flagship town park for the people of Shannon.
A full design team, led by a Landscape Architect and Urban Designer, was appointed in late September to progress the design and planning phases of the project and Clare County Council anticipates that contractors could be on site in mid-2017, subject to statutory planning procedures and approval.
Representatives from Clare County Council, the Design Consultants (Nicholas de Jong Associates), the Ecologist (Dr. Janice Fuller) and the Arboriculturalist (Michael Garry, Arbor-Care) will be present at upcoming public consultation to answer any questions and to listen to any proposals in relation to the project.
Senior Planner with Clare County Council, Brian McCarthy explained “The informal information session is aimed at providing a further opportunity for all residents of Shannon and people working in the town and surrounding areas to comment on the emerging proposals, which have so far been prepared based on the initial responses to questionnaires and public consultation undertaken in late 2016”.
He continued, “Once feedback on the emerging proposals has been obtained, it is intended to progress the scheme through the statutory Part 8 process, with a view to commencing works on site by late-Spring 2017.”
The Shannon Town Park project was first developed with public consultation to detailed masterplan level during the preparation of the Shannon Green Infrastructure Plan 2013. The project also is an objective of the Shannon Town & Environs Local Area Plan 2012-2018.
Earlier this year, Clare County Council was allocated €455,000 in EU funding from the Southern Regional Assembly’s Operational Programme 2014-2020 to support sustainable urban development in the Limerick-Shannon Gateway. Clare County Council is funding the balance of the overall cost of the Shannon Town Park project. The sanctioning authority for the Shannon Town Park project is the ERDF Auditing & Certifying Authority within the Department of Public Expenditure & Reform.