Chapter 7 - Delivering The Plan

The priority actions have been formulated and are evident based, following on from extensive consultation on the issues and needs of the community and in terms of the delivery of the Plan, it needs to be supported by the community in order to attain maximum benefit for Abbeyfeale.

Significant change only comes about when you have all the stakeholders working together to deliver the same goals. The Town Team will carry out the delivery of many of the projects outlined in the Plan in collaboration with the Local Authority and the Town Team will have a continuous role in overseeing the ultimate execution and review of the Plan in the long term. The Town Regeneration Officer will support the ongoing work of the Town Team, ensuring the development and delivery of the Town Centre First Plan.

Formulation and nurturing of collaborative groups are critical to the delivery of the Town Centre First Plan, it is anticipated that the Town Team will seek to the deliver some of projects in collaboration with the Local Authority and other partners as appropriate. A robust partnership approach is required to deliver on the Town Centre First Plan over the short, medium and long term.

Implementing this Plan will involve Limerick City and County Council helping to facilitate, promote, support and coordinate stakeholders in their activities in a way that is consistent with existing and emerging plans setting out public policy for sustainable development, including that relating to the economy, communities, infrastructure, land use tourism and environmental protection and environmental management.

This Plan is situated alongside this hierarchy of statutory documents that has been subject to environmental assessment/screening for environmental assessment, as appropriate, and forms the decision-making and consent-granting framework. The Plan does not provide consent or establish a framework for granting consent and will not be binding on any decisions relating to the granting of consent.

The Plan fully aligns with the provisions of the existing National Planning Framework, Ireland 2040, National Climate Action Plan 2023, Housing For All 2021, the Regional Spatial and Economic Strategy 2019-2031, the Limerick Development Plan 2022-2028 and the Abbeyfeale Local Area Plan 2023-2029, all of which have been subject to legislative requirements relating to public consultation and environmental assessment/screening for environmental assessment. As such, the Plan is wholly subject to the requirements of the provisions set out in these documents, encompassing measures relating to sustainable development, environmental protection and environmental management that have been integrated into these documents, including through SEA and AA processes, and does not introduce any alterations or additions to those provisions.

In order to be realised, projects included in this Plan (in a similar way to other projects from any other sectors) will have to comply, as relevant, with various legislation, policies, plans and programmes (including requirements for lower-tier Appropriate Assessment, Environmental Impact Assessment and other licencing requirements as appropriate) that form the statutory decision-making and consent-granting framework. It is a specific provision of this Plan to ensure that all of the provisions from the Limerick Development Plan 2022-2028 and the Abbeyfeale Local Area Plan 2023-2029 identified in the accompanying Screening for SEA and AA reports shall be complied with throughout the implementation of this Plan. The delivery of the Town Centre First Plan for Abbeyfeale needs to draw on resources available through the various Government Departments and Agencies to ensure an integrated and co–ordinated approach to addressing the priority actions outlined above. The Plan sets out clear priority action and initiatives under each action, many will require multi agency and multi funding streams to be co –ordinated and delivered.