LIMERICK’S Georgian laneways are set to get a makeover after five projects initiated by local community leaders were selected by Limerick City and County Council for a new EU-sponsored programme.
The +CityxChange (Positive City Exchange) project aims to create a new community to drive innovation and fight climate change by working towards a “positive energy city”.
The overarching aim is to develop a series of demonstration projects on how to become a smart positive energy city for everyone.
Following a series of workshops, five groups were selected to develop their projects based around different themes for Limerick’ s Georgian laneway seeing how they can be best utilised for the benefit of the city and those who live and work here.
Mayor Michael Collins described Georgian Limerick as one of the city’s “great assets” and believes we need to develop and enhance its laneways in a sympathetic yet innovative way.
“It is great to see such interest in revitalising our Georgian laneways. They can be used for so many things, as highlighted by the range of projects selected. It is so important that we all work together on projects like these and that they are community/ group driven. It gives people ownership,” Mayor Collins said.
According to Dr Mihai Bilauca, leader of the +CityxChange project in Limerick City and County Council, the project is about finding innovative solutions to how we meet our energy consumption.
“Limerick’s Georgian quarter with its network of laneways creates an ideal opportunity to re-imagine this extraordinary city asset into a collection of wonderful spaces. We want to capture the imagination of local community groups to start the transformation of Georgian laneways and use physical interventions such as new planting, improved streetscape and decoration supported by advanced technologies such as air quality and noise sensors,” Dr Bilauca explained.
All groups including Limerick Mental Health Association, Hunt Museum, Limerick City Tidy Towns, Liveable Limerick and DeepSeek AI will work collaboratively with the support of Limerick City and County Council and use the services of Citizen Observatory and FabLab to realise their visions for the laneways.
Visit www.limerick.ie/CityxChange for more details.
