Julianstown design plan set to be revealed

After nearly 18 months of discussion and workshops, the members of the Julianstown Community Association, JDCA and Village Design Group will launch their village design statement on Thursday 7th October at 7.30pm at The Gallops, Julianstown. The plan for the future of Julianstown will be officially launched by Minister of State Ciarán Cuffe, TD. The Julianstown Village Design Statement (VDS) is a 'national pilot' from the Heritage Council's new village design statement programme, and has been supported by Meath County Council. So far, much of the statement work has been carried out by the local Village Design Sub-group, members of the Julianstown and District Community Association (JDCA) and Cllrs Sirena Campbell and Eoin Holmes, who all have been meeting monthly for a year with landscape architect consultant James Hennessey. The overall process has been developed in partnership with the Heritage Council, which has also provided funding, as well as Meath County Council and the Tipperary Institute all of whom participated in the pilot steering group. Several local consultation meetings were held with developers and residents to establish a consensus about the vision for the future of the village. The village statement sets out aims and design principles to guide the future development of Julianstown and a framework of 30 projects to be carried out over the next five to 10 years to improve the environment and quality of life in the village. These range from dealing with traffic issues to re-establishing a village centre with a tourist theme, developing a heritage trail and building a playground. The statement will feed into the review of the East Meath Local Area Plan (LAP), due to take place within the next year. PRO Alma Jordan said the launch would herald the beginning of the tangible work that has been identified throughout this process. "The design process for the development of the village has thrown up some really great ideas and directions that can be taken. However, they will only be as good as the people who roll up their sleeves and get involved; success in the long term will largely depend on being able to recruit more active bodies. The JDCA is already at work on prioritising and planning projects and are looking for support and resources to ensure their implementation," she said.