THE Treaty city is set to treble its population in the next ten to twenty years, with a prediction that it will be home to 250,000 people. And the soaring cost of petrol is one of the factors that will drive a reversal of the trend which saw people moving out to the country and the city suburbs. Professor Merrit Bucholz outlined his vision for the Limerick of the future as part of a presentation to the city council’s Transport and infrastructure committee this week.
“It’s predicted that the city will grow astonishingly quickly and we need to imagine now that Limerick’s population will grow to 250,000 and that could happen in the next decade,” the professor said.
“We need to make the city a more attractive option for those who choose to live in the countryside. We need a city which can grow sustainably, where you can commute in ten minutes, walk everywhere and send children to school around the corner, “
And his predictions hit home with the committee members with chairman, Cllr Ger Fahy (FG) stating that an immediate start should be made on at least some of the projects suggested in Professor Bucholz’s presentation, “A View for the Future of Limerick City”.
“If we get some of those projects moving, it will add to the attractiveness of Limerick as a city,” he said.
Cllr Joe Leddin (Lab) said there had been some very positive moves in recent times, but dereliction in the city centre would have to be tackled.
“The Milk Market is a good example. That has been an outstanding success. I go there every week but what are we doing with the Madden building? It’s right beside our beautiful market and there are burned-out cars in the basement and water pouring off of the top floor”.
He added that education was one of the key drivers of dynamic city.
“We have a situation in Limerick where there are selective enrolments and parents who can’t get their children into school here are forced to bypass the city to send them to school”.
Cllr Diarmuid Scully (FG) said the idea that we can go on maintaining more roads per head of population than any other country in Europe for people to live in the country was insane. Cllr Pat Kennedy (FG) said that a key objective must be to “see the city as a dynamic source for growth”.
