By Andy Spearman
Last week’s announcement of a new national park at Dowth is without doubt fantastic news for the whole Boyne Valley region but Drogheda, often referred to as the gateway to the Boyne Valley, is in dire need of serious remedial attention before we can make it attractive to visitors and a good place to live and do business.
Years of very little investment and much neglect by owners has resulted in an alarming level of vacancy and dereliction of our buildings leaving our once thriving town in a sorry state.
Not only is Drogheda looking down at heel, but the increasing problem of anti-social behaviour is dragging it even further down leaving it very unattractive to locals and visitors alike.
Then there’s the problem of the permanent traffic jam on West Street which is, for a main street, very narrow. Why can’t we open the space up for pedestrians and let the town breathe again?
Who wants to visit or do business in a street that is dirty, hemmed in with a permanent traffic jam and with outdoor drinking and open drug dealing a permanent feature, not to mention the violence which is increasing all the time?
This vicious circle cannot be allowed to continue but, so far at least, there has been precious little by way of action from either local or central government and Drogheda’s reputation sinks lower all the time.
A couple of weeks ago, at a public meeting of the Joint Policing Committee, several West Street traders pointed out to senior Gardaí that the anti-social behaviour had gotten out of hand in Drogheda.
Harassment and physical attacks are a daily occurrence as begging turns to mugging and the lack of public toilets drives the public drinkers and drug takers to relieving themselves wherever they can.
Some of the buildings, in West Street and Narrow West Street especially, have been allowed to sink so far down the road of dereliction that it is difficult to see any way of saving them.
But this is not a new story. I and many others have been expressing concerns on this topic for many years but the time has come for action.
The new national park has the potential to attract hundreds of thousands of visitors every year but we in Drogheda need to get our act together before we can expect many of them to visit us. Not when they have the option of visiting Trim, Navan, Slane and elsewhere along the majestic river Boyne which are already booming by comparison.
We’ve left it very late in the day but we need to get our act together as soon as possible to prepare for what could be a brighter future for Drogheda.
For years we have been promised that the Westgate Vision regeneration project will be a world-class public realm scheme that will allow the area to “realise its full potential as a gateway to some of the county’s most significant and historic sites and attractions” but, so far at least, all of the action has been on the consultant’s drawing boards.
Business organisations, Councillors, TDs, local authorities, and others need to start planning now. That word “planning” makes me shudder though, so much good work has gone undone because of the labyrinthine planning system in this country.
We need new infrastructure to welcome visitors, the Boyne Valley Greenway will be a huge draw when it is built but we’ve been talking about that for many years also. The optics on that scheme are good however and hopefully work can begin in the near future.
All of this improvement work, and much more besides, is vital but not just to attract visitors. We need to make Drogheda a great place for people to live, work and to raise children.
First of all though, we need people in positions of power to get together to come up with the solutions, share the leadership and vision, make the case for vastly increased government investment and get the job done.
