B a l l y b o f e y - S t r a n o r l a r Regeneration of Y o u r P L A C E

Report on a consultation w o r k s h o p o n 2 6 t h November 2019

A workshop to explore t h e r e g e n e r a t i o n potential of - S t r a n o r l a r

Y o u r P L A C E

Y o u r

B A L L Y B O F E Y -

S T R A N O R L A R

What we did A b o u t 6 0 p e o p l e On the 26th November 2019, BASICC with the Regeneration and Development Team g a t h e r e d t o of County Council invited the community of Ballybofey-Stranorlar to come talk about the together in Kee’s Hotel to explore project ideas for community, economic and regeneration potential of physical changes in the centre of the twin towns. B a l l y b o f e y - S t r a n o r l a r The turn-out was fantastic as was the energy in the room with over 60 people taking part. There was a focus on solutions and a mix of big and small ideas to regenerate the town centres of Ballybofey and Stranorlar.

We asked three questions

Claire McCallan, Architect, & Kieran Doherty, Chair of BASICC talking at the event What do you What do you What are love about not like about your idea’s Ballybofey- Ballybofey- for the Stranorlar? Stranorlar? future?

BASICC and the Regeneration & Development Team of Donegal County Council put this map together to help to

trigger some ideas

People shared a lot about the P L A C E of

B A L L Y B O F E Y - S T R A N O R L A R

These are our assets to be These are the challenges that These are the possibilities that

protected and enhanced we must address we can develop

What do you love about Ballybofey-Stranorlar?

The most common response was that people love the community networks and community infrastructure in the towns.

What do you dislike about Ballybofey-Stranorlar?

The most common dislikes relate to the extent of traffic congestion and dominance of the car in the town centres followed by the poor town centre quality/ urban design/ town centre management.

What are your ideas for the future?

Twelve key themes for future ideas and interventions emerged In effect this is about and the detail of these ideas can be found on the next page. PLACE - MAKING

The greatest number of comments (27%) related to the idea to Place-making is the process improve accessibility in the town centres and enhance public of creating quality places that people want to live, work, play, and learn in. realm and the physical environment.

12 emerging themes for the future regeneration of Ballybofey -Stranorlar

The detail of the 12 emerging regeneration themes

Lots of the ideas can be mapped while others were not directly linked to a specific location but rather are thematic ideas like marketing the towns as a tourist destination for example. The ideas that can be mapped are

combined in the image below with the earlier ideas that were shown to trigger peoples thinking.

At this early stage in our collaborative process to prepare a regeneration strategy, this map shows the density of ideas for the regeneration of the twin towns and the wealth of opportunity that we can develop.

The next steps

What happens next?

th All of the feedback and ideas from the consultation event on 26 November 2019 point to a clear need for a roadmap that will document and visualise the projects for

community, economic and physical changes in the centre of the twin towns.

This will be the Ballybofey-Stranorlar Regeneration Strategy and Action Plan.

It will identify a series of projects and actions that we will collectively work to deliver over the next 20 years. These projects and actions will range in type from community type projects to economic projects to infrastructural projects. They will also range in

scale from small to transformational. There will be an implementation strategy to guide us as to which project should be prioritised and which should be delivered in the

short, medium or longer term.

Working in partnership with BASICC, Donegal County Council has appointed Pasparakis Friel Architects to take this work further. As a first step the architects will carry out

further targeted consultation which will include an online survey. The architects will integrate the new information that they learn with the feedback from our consultation in November 2019 and they will put design, creativity and vision at the heart of a place-making strategy for Ballybofey-Stranorlar.

The Draft will be prepared around December 2020 and there will more opportunities for the community to get involved and input into the Draft.