€691,814 Funding Announcement for Waterford Towns
Waterford City and County Council was successful in securing €691,814.00 in funding under the 2021 Town and Village Renewal Scheme which was recently announced by the Minister for Rural and Community Development, Heather Humphreys T.D.
The Town and Village Scheme is one of a series of national and local support measures designed to rejuvenate small rural towns and villages throughout Ireland, under the Department of Rural & Community Development’s Rural Development Investment Programme. The recent announcement which has committed funding support of €18.3 million for 99 towns and villages nationwide, is a key part of ‘Our Rural Future’ which aims to support rural towns and encourage more people to return confidently to town and village centres to work, shop and socialise.
Announcing the funding Minister Humphreys said, “I am delighted to announce this latest round of funding as part of Our Rural Future. Many of the successful projects I am announcing today will see vacant and derelict town centre building such as old banks, garda stations and convents transformed into community, cultural and arts spaces. There is also a strong focus on remote working projects in this round of funding and I am pleased to see that a number of counties have set out ambitious marketing plans aimed at attracting remote workers to relocate.”
Under this latest round of Town and Village Renewal Scheme funding the Waterford projects which will benefit include:
· Ballyduff Upper – proposal is to bring a vacant derelict storehouse located in the village centre back to use as a multi-purpose space incorporating a shop, café, remote working/videoconferencing facilities, youth hub and gym facility– €250,000.00
· Dunmore East – Remediation of the Fisherman’s Hall building for multi-purpose use and repurposing of rooms to facilitate remote working functionality and public realm and open space enhancement including access arrangement to Stony Cove.– €250,000.00
· Touraneena – Repurposing of the first floor of Sliabh gCua Community Centre in Touraneena to facilitate multipurpose flexible usage including dedicated remote working space– €100,000.00
· Villierstown – Fit out of a multi-purpose community building with a remote working hub facility i.e. IT and office equipment – €91,814.00
Welcoming the announcement Mayor of Waterford City and County, Cllr. Joe Kelly was delighted to see more funding from central government.
“The Town and Village Renewal Scheme is a much welcome injection of funds to enhance our rural communities. Towns and villages such as Dunmore East and Touraneena will now be better positioned to provide state of the art remote working hubs to attract even more talent, energy and vitality to these communities.”
Town and Village Renewal Scheme has funded 56 projects all across Waterford since 2016, which equates to funding support of €3.3m allocated to Waterford City & County Council. It is envisaged that projects funded under the 2021 scheme will be implemented throughout 2022 and 2023.
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