Athlone green city plan now 'in the hands of Taoiseach and team'

The man behind the drive to transform Athlone into a new green sustainable city with a population of up to 100,000 people by 2040 has said the future of the project is in the hands of the Taoiseach and his team.

Founder of the Ballymore Group, Roscommon native, Sean Mulryan, told members of Roscommon County Council at their monthly meeting on Monday that he had brought the hugely ambitious project for Athlone as far as he could, and he said the time has now come for the State to get involved. “We need to get them to press the green button and get on with it,” he remarked.

Mr Mulryan was attending the meeting at the invitation of Fianna Fail councillor Larry Brennan, who proposed at the December meeting that members of the Ballymore Group be invited to present their vision for the development of Athlone as Ireland's first green city and the benefits this would have for county Roscommon.

The property developer was accompanied by three members of the steering group for the Athlone project, David Killion, Developments Director with the Ballymore Group; Professor Brian MacCraith, former President of Dublin City University and Josephine Feehily, Chair of the TUS Governing Body.

During a 40-minute presentation on the Athlone City Vision, led by David Killion, elected members were given an outline of the masterplan for creating a city in Athlone. The plan centres around growing the TUS Athlone campus from its current student cohort of 6,000 students up to 25,000 students and transforming it into a centre of excellence in research, innovation and green technology.

Also forming part of the ambitious masterplan is a proposal for the creation of a 5,000-bed eco-friendly student village; 20,000 new zero-carbon homes in the first phases; increasing the population of Athlone to 100,000; an enhanced and expanded riverfront city centre and road networks tailored for electric driverless buses, EV's, bikes and pedestrians.

Mr Mulryan told members that he, along with his team, has spent the past eight years working on his proposal for Athlone and, to date, he has met with “virtually every senior Minister across all parties” including Westmeath's Peter Burke, and has received “huge encouragement and support” from all quarters.

However, he said from the point of view of the Ballymore Group “we have to hand this project back to the government as that is the model that has been successful in other places” and he appealed to councillors to “get on the phone” and lobby government ministers to take the Athlone City Vision project on board.

“Now is a very good time for the government to re-imagine the future, we have to start now, and indecision on this project cannot go on for another year,” said Mr Mulryan.

David Killion echoed the sentiments expressed by Sean Mulryan when he told members that, while the Athlone City Vision project is “a Ballymore vision, it is a government project”.

There was unanimous support for the proposal from the elected members of Roscommon County Council, including the municipal district members from the south of the county. Cllr Laurence Fallon said the spin-off for Roscommon and the entire West of Ireland from the creation of a green city in Athlone would be “absolutely huge” and he described the plan as “a let-off valve” for the government in view of the fact that Dublin and the M50, and also the city of Galway are “gridlocked” and there is an urgent need for more development in the midlands and across the west of the country.

Cllr Fallon sounded a note of caution about the influence that “serial objectors” can have on major building projects, and said this issue will “have to be dealt with” if the Athlone City Vision is to become a reality.

Noting that this was the second time for the members from the Athlone Municipal District of the council to hear the Ballymore Group's presentation, Cllr Emer Kelly said it was “very refreshing” as a local representative to see someone coming forward with “a clearly articulated vision” and added “we need to aim big.”

She wanted to know if 2040 was “a realistic timeframe” for the project to become a reality, while Cllr Valerie Duffy queried whether Dart or Luas-style transport links would need to be incorporated into the plans.

She also asked if the laws would need to be changed in terms of “building up instead of using more land”.

Cathoirleach of the Athlone Municipal District Cllr Dominick Connolly described the Athlone city plan as “mind-boggling” and said it would “transform the whole region.”

He also expressed his excitement at the fact that the Ballymore Group had “bypassed Dublin, Cork and elsewhere” and brought their city plans to “the heart of the Midlands.”

Cllr Tony Ward also pledged his strong support for the project and said Athlone was a town “waiting for something like this to happen” while Cllr John Keogh said the State will need to get “actively involved” in the Athlone City Vision project in order for it to happen, and he wanted to know what the costs involved would be in terms of the compulsory acquisition of land.

Cllr Keogh also received unanimous support from the meeting for his proposal that as letter from Roscommon Country Council be sent to the Taoiseach's office urging him to take “all necessary steps” to get the Athlone city project underway.

“If it could be done in London from concept to delivery within ten years, surely it can be done here,” he said.

In response to queries from members, Sean Mulryan said he did not envisage “any high rise buildings” being part of the Athlone city project, and described the building style as “medium density with apartments of no higher than “seven or eight storeys.”

He also admitted that, while a body of work still needs to be done on costings, he told members that in a meeting with the Taoiseach he had told him that the project would cost roughly “€1 billion per year for the first five years” and therefore, it would need to be “a top down project” led by the State.

When asked by Council Cathaoirleach, Cllr Liam Callaghan, to outline “the next steps” for the project, Mulryan said “the State is going to have to take this project on” in order for it to progress.

“We have got no negatives on this, everybody says it's great, but somebody needs to push the button, we have brought it this far and it is now down to the Taoiseach and his team,” he said.