·         Rural Regeneration

·         Urban Regeneration

Ms. Majella Hunt, Director of Services, outlined the details of the new Regeneration Funds and application process recently announced:

Urban Regeneration and Development Fund (URDF):

·         The Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government has the responsibility for implementing the URDF and nationally has an allocation of €2bn to 2027. The fund is being established to promote more compact and sustained development through regeneration and rejuvenation of cities and towns in line with the objectives of the National Planning Framework.

·         The Scheme is aimed at the main cities and larger urban towns with greater than10,000 pop or less than 10,000 pop but with more than 2,500 jobs.

·         The fund is based on a competitive bid based programme and from the public sector and ideally local authority led but may include community and/or private sector partners

·         The proposed project should be of a value of more than €2m and matching funding of 25% will be required.

·         The project should be a catalyst for development that would not otherwise occur and likely to leverage significant further public and private sector investment.

·         Roscommon Town is the only eligible town for consideration for this fund and an application can be submitted as a Ready to Go project (Category A) or have some design done (Category B)

·         Closing date for bids is 28^th September.

Rural Regeneration and Development Fund (RRDF):

·         This scheme is similar to the Urban Scheme but on a smaller scale and will be delivered by the Department of Rural and Community Development.

·         Fund of €1bn available to 2027 and is available to towns and villages not eligible under the Urban Scheme.

·         The first call for proposals are for Category 1 – Ready to go Projects and Category 2 – proposals that have clear potential and quantifiable objectives but require further development to be potentially submitted under category 1.

·         Matching funding as above of 25% including 10% cash.

·         The Minimum cost of the project must be €500,000 with no upper limit.

·         Schemes should involve collaboration across Local Authority boundaries and well as inside and the key criteria includes relevance to National Strategic Outcomes of Project Ireland 2040, a collaborative approach with other state agencies, a strategic vision, additionality and value for money, leverage of funding from partners and have a sustainable impact on the social or economic development of rural communities.

·         Closing date for bids is 27^th September.

The members discussed the schemes as follows:

In response to concerns about community groups ability to put forward schemes, given the short lead-in time, Majella Hunt clarified that there are a number of other funding streams for these groups but these are much larger projects whereby the Local Authority or other state body will be the lead. She also informed the members that details of the schemes were received on 3^rd and 4^th July.

Members welcomed the funding opportunities but had a number of queries as follows:

Not sure of the collaborative process – towns and villages are feeling very left out and we need to focus on small villages

·         How will the applications to be submitted be decided?

·         There are no plans ready for most villages – perhaps a number of villages could collaborate on an application?

·         The funding appears to be too far away in the future and the bar has been set too high. It will be hard to get matching funding unless we have a strategic plan.

·         This is good news if we can draw down the funding and while we must be concerned with economics and jobs, we also need to consider social needs.

·         We don’t have critical mass in County Roscommon as is specified in the NDP so it is unlikely we will get any of this funding.

·         Can property be part of matching funding?

·         County Roscommon needs regeneration and out challenge is finding matching funding in a county where every €100 is accounted for. We should ask for additional funding to help meet the matching funding requirement.

·         It is important that the Cortober part of Carrick on Shannon is not left out should Leitrim seek funding for Carrick on Shannon.

Majella Hunt clarified as follows:

·         Only Roscommon town qualifies under the Urban Fund. We need to identify a project under Category B to move to Category A over a period of time. Significant work has been done by the Planning Department over a number of years on Local Area Plans and this would develop those plans. This would be a flagship project.

·         With regard to rural fund, we have been looking at Boyle 2040 and there have been a number of presentations on plans for its regeneration. We need to be committed to start work on our vision and this is the mechanism where we hope to get funding.

·         Villages need to have plans and have them costed as there are opportunities to gain from many sources.

On the PROPOSAL of Cllr. Leyden

              SECONDED by Cllr. Doherty

It was AGREED to write to Central Government seeking additional funding to allow Roscommon County Council generate matching funding for these projects.