The town of Fermoy takes an optimistic look at its potential and its future
Is Fermoy a town whose time has come? Built strategically on the banks of the Blackwater, the old garrison town is notorious for its traffic congestion, its lack of facilities and its jaded appearance.
One answer is that Fermoy's best days have come and gone, the other is that it is on the threshold of a new era, the spur for which will be the proposed bypass.
The Royal Hotel in the square is now a vacant site, while on nearby Ashe Quay, the Grand Hotel has closed its doors. It is inconceivable that a town of this size (pop 5,000) on the main route between Cork and Dublin is without a hotel.
Vastly improved roads between Cork and Fermoy means the town is only 30 minutes drive from Cork, ideally placed to draw conference business, stop-over tours and the various other types of business a vibrant ring town should be able to attract from a major metropolitan area. Yet, it is not happening because Fermoy does not have the infrastructure and because up to 25,000 cars each day pass through to points elsewhere, giving it a bad reputation.
While there is talk in the latest County Development Plan for Cork of new rail links to other peripheral towns such as Midleton and Blarney, suggested plans for Fermoy only encompass improved bus links. The strategic importance of the town is recognised, but a number of things must happen before its true potential can even begin to be realised.
Firstly, something must be done about the traffic problem. It seems certain that Fermoy will get its bypass although there is significant opposition to the tolling aspect likely to accompany it. For the moment, the most pressing question is whether funds are available to begin work on the project. It was tentatively scheduled to start during the last quarter of this year, now, in the climate of cutbacks, things are not so certain.
The Fermoy Regional Enterprise Board has written to the National Roads Authority to ask what the position was. There is an urgent need for work on the bypass to begin, says Mr Michael Hanley, chairman of the board, "because it is the most vital ingredient of the cake we are preparing to bake".
The owner of the Royal Hotel site, Mr Pat Owens, believes Fermoy's potential will only be unlocked when the bypass is in place and the town is given room to breathe. He has plans to redevelop the hotel. Work will begin on the new 40-bedroom hotel, bar, restaurant and coffee dock at the end of April. The project will cost an estimated €4 million.
That's one positive for the town. Another is the plan by a local businessman to redevelop the Grand Hotel on the quayside.
Also, the enterprise board is understood to be involved in the preparation of a project which could lead to a new €76 million hotel and conference/leisure centre adjoining the town park.
Fermoy's town centre does not enjoy a good mix of shopping and what is available at present represents mainly the clothing and grocery sectors. That has got to be addressed, according to Mr Hanley.
A Coventry firm of consultants, called in by the board last year to assess the position, concluded that a town centre partnership, drawing together the town council, Cork County Council and a broad coalition of interest groups, including the enterprise board, should be established to target town centre projects and monitor the delivery of funding for them.
One opportunity for Fermoy should have been the Government's town renewal scheme which offers tax breaks to local investors to redevelop and improve properties. However, the town's enterprise board believes the scheme was rushed by the team responsible for designating properties which would qualify and tailored in such a fashion that, inexplicably, one property was included while another on the same street was excluded.
The result, says Mr Hanley, is that the take-up has been almost non-existent. The scheme as offered was unbending, he adds, and unsuited to the real needs of the town. If there had been better local consultation, the scheme could have been designed in a much more attractive and practicable way.
Fermoy, nevertheless, is pressing ahead and has a solid employment base on which to build. Key industries which were attracted by the enterprise board, IDA and the former Urban District Council, now Fermoy Town Council, such as FCI, SCI and BUPA, provide almost 1,100 jobs between them.
The former Fitzgerald Barracks, on 20 acres, is to become a business and technology park, the old Faber Castell factory is earmarked as a mini-industrial park, and there is a general feeling of optimism among the business community.
All that remains to set things in motion is the bypass.