Moate Town Team expected to be in place by next month

Preliminary meetings have been held with local groups in Moate in a bid to recruit a Town Team to liaise with consultants on devising a masterplan for the town centre.

Last December, it was announced that Moate would be one of 26 towns around the country to be allocated €100,000 in funding as part of the government’s new 'Town Centre First' plan.

In response to a question from Cllr Tom Farrell at the July meeting of the local Municipal District, Director of Services Barry Kehoe confirmed that the process of establishing the Town Team in Moate was “already underway” and that preliminary meetings had taken place with local groups.

Mr Kehoe said he expected the team to be in place “before September.” It was also pointed out that there was no “predetermined number of members” but that the critical consideration was that the team would be representative of the whole community, including residents, businesses and the community and voluntary sector.

Cllr Farrell said it was very important that the Moate Town Team get “up and running” as soon as possible, “and before the gloss wears off the whole plan.”

He added that Moate was “crying out” for a plan to revitalise the centre of the town, and that it could be used as an example for other towns.