Tackling vacancies and dereliction top priority for scheme in Roscrea

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Tackling vacancies and dereliction will be the top priority under a new scheme in the North of the county, according to a local councillor.

Roscrea will be the first town in the county to see changes under the Town Centre First plan and Fianna Fail Councillor Michael Smith says the issues with vacant properties in the area will be top of the agenda.

Councillor Smith says that a lot of work has happened under the previous Roscrea Enhancement Plan and he is looking forward to seeing the improvements under the Town Centre First plan.

He also says that talking to derelict property owners is the first step towards a long-term solution.
“We had an excellent presentation from our town centre regeneration officer Aine McCarthy so there’ll be a number of different priorities as part of this town centre initiative and I suppose particularly focussing on vacancies and dereliction. We’ve seen the announcement by government in relation to the different grants that are availabe but I suppose her role will be to work with and communicate with these owners and hopefully get a satisfactory and a long term result for the town and that’s most imporant.”

Councillor Smith believes it is important to get the youth of the town involved in any changes, hoping that young people will come forward and help shape the future of their town.

“It’s only when you get that different myriad of views and everybody looks at their own area and wants to try and achieve and improve it so i think when we bring this all together and we see the complete package that we’ll be able to hae those different views and work together so I hope the young and not so young can play a role in this”