Tramore Local Area Plan - Waterford County Council

Chapter 4: Economic Development4.3 OFFICE DEVELOPMENTThe Council will actively promote the development of additional office andservice uses in town centre locations and in appropriate industrial andcommercial areas.OfficeDevelopment…Reuse of UpperFloors…TelecommunicationsInfrastructure…POLICYOF1: To promote appropriately scaled office type development in suitablyzoned locationsOF2: To promote the reuse of vacant buildings and vacant upper floors ofexisting retail premises for office development where suitable.OF2: To facilitate and promote the provision of a telecommunicationsnetwork infrastructure to address the socio –economic needs of thepopulation and the various employment sectors4.5 RETAIL DEVELOPMENTThe Retail Planning Guidelines for Planning Authorities were issued by thePlanning Authorities by the Department of the Environment Heritage & LocalGovernment in December 2000. These required Local Authorities to prepareretail policies for their administrative areas and set out matters that are to beconsidered.4.5.1 County Retail StrategyThe update and review of the County Retail Strategy was adopted on the 12 th ofJune 2006 and outlines the retail policies for the County and sets out matters tobe included in future Development Plans. The current strategy notes thatTramore is under providing in terms of its retail provision. It further states thatthe council should be encouraging retail development within Tramore that isconsistent with the Local Area Plan, the retail strategy and all other relevantplans and policies.Tramore is designated as a Secondary Service Centre in the County SettlementHierarchy and a larger town in the National Spatial Strategy (NSS). Tramore haswitnessed no major retail development since the 2003 LAP was prepared and itsshare in the County’s total floorspace has declined by 3.6% to 13.9% over theintervening period. It remains the second largest retail centre in the County buthas only 22.3% the floorspace of Dungarvan. Currently there are no national orinternational comparison retailers in Tramore albeit there have been two recentplanning applications for major retail developments.The updated Retail Strategy emphases that while Tramore is the fastest growingtown in the County it is failing to meet both the daily and main shopping needsof people in the town or its hinterland .It acknowledges that the review of theTramore Local Area Plan must identify and zone sites of an appropriate size to34