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Submission by Kilkenny LEADER Partnership to the Southern

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Submission by Kilkenny LEADER Partnership to the Southern Submission by Kilkenny LEADER Partnership to the Southern Regional Assembly Draft Regional Spatial and Economic Strategy for the Southern Region, based on the consultations for The Nore Vision initiative. Introduction Kilkenny LEADER Partnership welcomes this opportunity to input into the consultation on the Draft Regional Spatial and Economic Strategy for the Southern Region (hereafter, ‘RSES’). This submission will outline proposals and ideas generated by The Nore Vision consultations for the future of the Nore catchment conducted in Kilkenny, Northern and Southern Tipperary, and along the Carlow border (with Kilkenny and Laois) that the RSES could incorporate (please see appendix 1 for a map of the Nore catchment). The Nore Vision consultation process recorded the shared aspirations of stakeholders for the future of the River Nore and all of its tributaries, the land that drains into them, and the people who live and work there. It sets out the future that stakeholders wish to see for the Nore catchment within their lifetime and what they wish to leave as their legacy to the next generation. Consequently, the RSES’s cross-cutting issues of improving quality of life and safeguarding inclusive communities and places are also to the fore in The Nore Vision initiative. The consultation process of The Nore Vision identified consensus among a diverse range of stakeholders that the following were desirable priorities: • better water quality • the conservation of natural heritage and sustainable floodplains • improved access to and amenity value of built and natural heritage • greater public awareness and pride in local rivers, and • authentic engagement with communities e.g. through participatory planning methodologies plus appropriately designed and administered support for community-based, volunteer-run projects. These priorities influence the quality of life in the Southern Region across age groups and social classes, improve resilience in an era of climate change, benefit tourism and the broader economy, including through visionary land-use planning and place-making, and promote civic responsibility. The Nore Vision – a valuable input to the RSES This submission outlines the background to The Nore Vision consultation process and explains why it is a valuable input to the RSES. While this submission pertains to the Nore catchment in Kilkenny, Northern and Southern Tipperary and Northern Carlow, its proposals is likely to have relevance for the Southern Region’s other river systems too. Between 2017 and 2018, over 200 people participated in consultation workshops for The Nore Vision including residents, landowners, community groups, development organisations and government agencies (appendix 2). The Nore Vision consultations revealed that while people, groups, bodies and agencies have a range of perspectives and priorities when it comes to the River Nore and its tributaries, there is a great deal of common ground when it comes to their ‘Vision’ for its future. While The Nore Vision 1 is focused on the River Nore and its tributaries, the lessons from the initiative have applicability in other river catchments across the Southern Region. The Nore Vision consultation outputs and their relevance to the RSES Using the structure of the Draft RSES, this submission outlines ideas recorded from The Nore Vision consultations. It has been compiled by Kilkenny LEADER Partnership, a constituent member of voluntary steering group of The Nore Vision (appendix 3), supported by the independent researcher facilitating The Nore Vision. The outputs of The Nore Vision consultations are not directed at any one organisation, body or agency, nor are they solely relevant to any one community or economic sector. As is the case with the Nore catchment and its diverse resources, the end users of the outputs of The Nore Vision consultation process transcend social and and political boundaries and have relevance to many stakeholders of different compositions. The Draft consultation phase of the RSES offers a welcome opportunity to share relevant outputs of The Nore Vision consultation process with the Southern Regional Assembly. General Points The recent 2019 National Biodiversity Conference outlined how society and its economy is based on an environmental foundation and this is recognised in the RSES where it states, while “economic and social progress go hand-in-hand” the environment and its quality is fundamental to everything else, including “how and where people live, work, recreate and travel” (RSES: 9). Effective planning recognises the “three indivisible dimensions of sustainable development (the economic, the social and the environmental)” and calls for more holistic ways of working that transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries and that resolve contradictory viewpoints e.g. through “collaborative partnerships” to help shift us “into a sustainable and resilient path” (RSES: 11). Thus, as for the RSES, The Nore Vision recognises the value of using the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals as a transdisciplinary framework to help guide the challenging discussions and negotiations needed to achieve more joined-up thinking and actions. The Nore Vision can be understood as the voice of the river system, advocating on its behalf, to help secure the future of the Nore commons for current and future generations. A key aspect to a sustainable future is having a secure, resilient, healthy water supply. Not only do rivers flow through or adjacent to settlements in the Southern Region, they also create visible linkages between communities of all sizes, from sparsely populated uplands where rivers rise, through increasingly larger settlements to coastal cities and estuaries. Rivers are powerful tools for highlighting the need for increased collaboration across communities as they are passive receptacles in which a multitude of choices made in homes, farms, factories and authorities all combine in unpredictable ways, sometimes with negative consequences. Downstream communities that receive the waters impacted by those upstream not only tend to be more populated centres but may also be located in different counties. This is the case with the River Nore. It rises in the Devil’s Bit Mountain of Northern Tipperary, from where it flows through Laois and on to Kilkenny before reaching the estuary at Waterford City. Other key upland headwaters of the Nore are the Slieve Ardagh Hills of Southern Tipperary, the Slieve Blooms of Laois and the Castlecomer Plateau of Kilkenny, Laois and Carlow. This inter-county geography of river catchments is why considering rivers at the Regional Scale is necessary. The fact that the Nore also has headwaters and flows through Laois highlights the way in which river catchments cross regional boundaries too. Thus, the geography of rivers embody the network of settlements in the Southern 2 Region, and beyond, emphasising the importance of joined-up thinking at intra-county, inter-county and inter-regional levels. National Strategic Outcomes of particular relevance to The Nore Vision include: Strengthened Rural Economies and Communities; Enhanced Amenities and Heritage (especially attractive placemaking); Sustainable Management of Water and other Environmental Resources. The Nore Vision complements the SRA’s strategy “for building the Southern Region as one of Europe’s most Creative, Innovative, Greenest and Liveable Regions” and has greatest relevance for the Regional Strategic Goals of (RSES: 22-3): 3. Strengthening the role and improve quality of life in the southern region’s diverse rural places and communities and value our rural region as a dynamic, resilient and outward looking areas of potential. 7. Strengthening and protecting our region’s diverse culture, recreation, natural heritage, biodiversity and built heritage. 8. Safeguarding and enhancing our environment through sustainable development, transitioning to a low carbon and climate resilient society. Re: RSES Chapter 3 - People and Places The River Nore and its tributaries runs through (or directly adjacent to) the following settlements in Kilkenny (Key Town of Kilkenny city, district towns – Callan, Castlecomer and Thomastown, and the smaller towns and villages of Bennettsbridge, Clogh, Dungarvan, Freshford, Inistioge, Johnstown, Kells, Kilmanagh, Moneenroe, Stoneyford and Urlingford) and in Tipperary (environs of the district town of Roscrea, plus smaller towns and villages of Clonakenny, The Commons and Mullinahone). The Nore Vision supports Regional Policy Objective (RPO) 9 for appropriately planned population growth in the catchment’s Key Town of Kilkenny City and the region’s 4th largest settlement, to ensure environmental assimilative capacity, adequate UWWT infrastructure and protection of the Nore SAC and SPA. The Nore is a recognised recreational asset in the Key Town. As the RSES points out, population decline and dereliction in towns and villages is a challenge, and many people prefer to live outside of settlements. Research into people’s attitudes to towns1 has found that the elements of most importance in their daily lives tend to relate to the surrounding area, including the physical and natural environment. Public areas, including parks, are considered important or very important by 78% of people (this rises to 81% among people who would like to live in towns but currently live outside the centre). For cleanliness of their area, the figures rise to over 90% and 95%, respectively. This suggests that a policy to attract more people to live in settlements
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