New street layouts and upgrades will be a ‘game changer’ for Slane
Local municipal district meeting hears of ambitious public realm plan for village in conjunction with bypass plan
The new public Realm Plan to reinvent Slane village will be “a game changer” according to designers working on the project.
The comments were made at a presentation of the draft plan at the Laytown/Bettystown Municipal District May meeting.
The project will form part of the application for the Slane N2 Bypass.
A public display of the scheme is on track for next month and the project will be submitted to An Bord Pleanala in the second quarter of 2022.
BDP Urban Design and Landscape Consultants were appointed by the Planning Department of Meath County Council to produce a public realm strategy for Slane village centre.
According to the draft report the ambition of the public realm plan is to offer solutions to reorganise the street layout across the village and further to the south along Dublin Road to create a functional yet pleasant environment to move around, shop and interact.
The proposal includes the redesign of the junction on the square, the creation of a new village square, the general reorganisation of the two main roads crossing the village and creation of more pedestrian friendly and improved recreational connections along the southern approach to the village.
The plan will see greater public lighting, greater space for pedestrians and the introduction of vegetation with tree lined streets enhancing the appearance of the heritage village.
It was established that on street parking will need to be reduced for crossing points and a need for an off street car park was identified.
“It has such a rich heritage and architectural presence and all of the natural elements that we really see potential for Slane to be so much improved,” commented an architect working on the design.
“Issues with congestion and vehicle dominance with the bypass coming in will make a significant difference.”
Potential for the village plan was analysed both without a bypass and with a bypass and It was found that considerably more could be done in conjunction with a bypass.
“Today it is designed for a lot of vehicles and actually we can gain back a lot of that space. We want to redesign the junction so we can make that central crossing point and make it so much more pedestrian friendly rationalising all of the street furniture and seeing how we can really improve the appearance and maintain the function and have general character promoting pedestrian, cycle recreation spaces.”
Architects identified an opportunity to have better recreational routes going from Slane Castle in the west along the river.
“If we reduce vehicle traffic we can make this a really special place, you can look at both ends of the bridge having a feeling of creating mini destinations which will then help promote those different routes both recreational and access and promote the scene for what could potentially become a greenway, it has got ecological importance, movement importance and ultimately connect up to the town centre.”
“We think putting in vegetation is the way forward and maintain the function of the streets making it more pedestrian friendly with trees a better lighting, enhancing the presence of the buildings, making the buildings relate better to the spaces and making all of these junctions something that as you arrive you naturally slow down.
“On the Southern approach to the village we can make quite significant changes if this becomes a lot more of a narrow road with pedestrian and cycling accessibility along there so it is a game changer in terms of how the actual town will feel.”
Cllr Wayne Harding who put forward a motion on the county development plan for the creation of a 5km loop around Slane off the greenway commented that:
“If you put together the Slane bypass, the Greenway from Oldbridge to Navan Slane’s Public Realm and the proposed 5km around Slane off the greenway will change the face of Slane and bring it up to one of the finest villages in the country.”