The Government has received over 100 applications for its Urban Regeneration and Development Fund (URDF), and have worked their way through three quarters of those as of Wednesday last, South Kilkenny County Councillors have learned. Speaking at the November meeting of the Piltown Municipal District, Director of Services Sean McKeown (Planning, Economic and Environmental Services) said this was worth noting given that the 2019 URDF funding pot stands at €150 million.
The North Quay project is the prime regional applicant for the Government's 2019 Urban Regeneration and Development Fund.
In late September, Kilkenny County Council were co-signatories with Waterford City & County Council and Irish Rail in applying for a total of €104.5 million for the URDF to enable the “natural extension of Waterford City Centre” on the North Quays. The application, which Waterford City & County Council Chief Executive Michael Walsh has described as “a compelling case”, has requested the funding over four years, namely:
2019: €20.1m
2020: €31.6m
2021: €35.7m
2022: €17.1m
The signatories are also committed to adding just under €35 million to this pot between now and 2022, by which time the North Quay project is set to be opened (2018: €5m, 2019: €1.7m, 2020: €10.9m, 2021: €11.6m and 2022: €5.6m). In addition to the heavily publicised retail, hospitality and residential propositions on the North Quays, the URDF application refers to “The construction of a link road from Belmont to Abbey Park, improvements to the N29 Port Road to facilitate access to development lands in the Ferrybank/Belview Area and improvements to the existing Belmont and Abbey Roads”. The Belmont Link Road is due to have planning approval in place by December, while the N29 Port Road “will be subject to detailed design and the planning process in the coming months”.
