A PLAN to halt the 56 year decline of the Cork Street area in Dublin was launched in the Mansion House yesterday by a local community group. Cork Street, characterised by derelict buildings and sites, has been in decline since 1941, says the Cork Street/Maryland Community Association.
Proposals to widen the street, made in that year, have still not been implemented but they have accelerated the blight of the area through the compulsory purchase order process and attendant uncertainty", says the group which is chaired by a former trade union official, Mr Charlie Hammond.
The group has joined with Murray O Laoire Associates, architects and urban designers, to develop a "strategic development frame work" with which it will attempt to influence the policies of Dublin Corporation and relevant Government departments.
The strategy assumes that the street will ultimately be widened and seeks to exploit the positive benefits of this development while ameliorating its most negative aspects, the group says.
New housing, retail outlets and conservation of sites of historic interest are all included in the plan, as are craft based activities, restaurants and the development of public and semiprivate spaces. It also aims to increase the number of people living in the area.
"Inner city decline and the erosion of the traditional economic and community base of the area have contributed to the image of dereliction which characterises the area today," says a draft report produced by the group and by Murray O Laoire Associates.
The area covered by the plan runs approximately from St Patrick's Cathedral to the South Circular Road and takes in Newmarket which the group describes as "one of the great under exploited urban spaces of the area".