Cork County Council received 544 responses to its Bantry Town Centre First survey and will provide a summary of the findings to local councillors and the Bantry Town Team in September; it will then be circulated more widely to stakeholders in the town.
The findings of the survey will help the council and the Bantry Town Team to prioritise the planning of key projects and initiatives for the town, and to apply for funding to progress these ideas.
Funding of €10,000 was approved in 2024 by the Department of Rural and Community Development for the research.
Bantry’s Town Team, says the council, ‘is a group of local residents, business people, community representatives, elected representatives and other stakeholders who come together to collaborate with the local authority and consider ideas to make Bantry a better place to live, work and visit.’
The first meeting of the Bantry Town Team was held in late July this year.
The survey is the first step in a broader project for Bantry, and any actions taken will be dependent on funding.
A similar survey was undertaken for Skibbereen in July 2023, and the eventual plan was published relatively quickly following the survey, in May 2024, with almost €50,000 in funding announced recently for Skibbereen to make headway on some of the elements in the plan.
Town Centre First is a national endeavour to tackle vacancy and dereliction.
Funding for this first research stage in Bantry was announced last May, alongside similar amounts for Macroom and Mitchelstown.
Separately, last August, almost €50,000 was put aside for planning work for a new town centre plaza in Kinsale, also under the Town Centre First scheme.
