Clare County Council has been approved a revised allocation of 8.5 million euro in funding for the Ennis Public Realm Regeneration Project.
The project aims to improve accessibility for pedestrians in the O’Connell Street, O’Connell Square, High Street, Bank Place, Old Barrack Street and Barrack Square areas, as Clare FM’s Fiona Cahill reports.
This month’s meeting of the local authority heard the Ennis Public Realm Regeneration Project team was engaging with Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, in the hope of securing additional funding for the project.
This was to reflect increased costs due to design development and inflationary impacts within the construction industry generally.
The Department has now confirmed to Clare County Council that a revised allocation of €8.5 million in Urban Regeneration Development Fund support has been approved.
The local authority says this allows it to move to the next stage of the process, with the Final Business Case being completed.
This will subsequently be forwarded to the Department for consideration and approval, prior to the appointment of the successful contractor.
At that stage, there’ll be further public engagement with Elected Members, the business community and any other affected parties to determine the optimum programme of works and traffic management arrangements necessary.
A condition of contract includes for a Liaison Officer to be available for ongoing and regular engagement with affected parties, to ensure disruption is kept to minimum and that there’s good communication channels throughout the process.
