Sustainable Swords Frequently Asked Questions

The purpose of this project is to produce a place-making strategy focused on the strategic regeneration and compact, sustainable development of Swords. The objective is to increase the resilience of the local economy and to provide for an enhanced, accessible, inclusive, child-friendly and healthy urban environment.

This project is an output of strategic documents, including ‘Your Swords – An Emerging City - Strategic Vision 2035’ and the current Fingal Development Plan 2017-2023. The vision of the former is to consolidate and strengthen the historic town centre of Swords whilst the latter describes several specific objectives for the town centre within the context of a plan-led development strategy.

Given the critical role that Swords town centre plays in the local community, it is imperative that the Study Area, particularly Main Street and associated pedestrian linkages, contributes towards the quality of life of the local residents whilst respecting the natural environment and historic context of the area.

The ambition is for this strategy to form a coordinating device and that will establish a package of measures and projects that are prioritised, programmed and impactful, and that will enable the coordination of investment and decision-making across multiple stakeholders, maximising private sector engagement and identifying synergies and opportunities.

The strategy must not only be grounded in through evidential research, but also build upon and be cognisant of previous work undertaken for Swords, and research and consultation undertaken to inform previous plans and strategies. This includes the Swords Castle Cultural Quarter (SCQ) project as well as wider town centre objectives outlined in Your Swords Strategic Vision.

The aim is to identify a coordinated range of ‘pipeline’ projects that can be funded as part of the Urban Regeneration and Development Fund (URDF).

Key objectives for Sustainable Swords are to:

• Enhance the identity of the town centre through the: development of Swords Civic Centre and Cultural Centre; the on-going implementation of the conservation plan for Swords Castle; and the delivery of an enhanced accessible child-friendly public realm including new public nodes in Swords Town Centre.
• Facilitate the creation of a new street /pedestrian walkway fronting the river walk to the west of Main Street opening up these ‘backlands’ and support co-ordinated infill development on key strategic sites along Main Street and North Street.
• Promote core recreational and amenity spaces, utilising in particular Ward River Valley Park, Swords Cultural Quarter including Town Park, Ward River Walk west of Main Street area.
• Explore the potential of establishing a Swords Business Improvement District (BID).
• Expand upon the recommendations in the Swords section of the South Fingal Transport Study and develop a multi-modal transport strategy for Swords informed by in-depth research and analysis.
• Support community cohesion measures including, for example, establish a collaborative ‘what works’ approach to promoting safer neighbourhoods and reducing antisocial behaviour to enable everyone to contribute to a sense of well-being within an improved quality of life.
• Measures to enable regeneration of lands within the study area to ensure rejuvenation of the town centre and to enable activation of land for compact development.
• Establish a prioritised, programmed and impactful package of measures and projects.

The project team, led by KPMG Future Analytics and Turner & Townsend, began work in February 2021 with a 14-month project time scale.

The first part of the project involves a town health check with detailed analysis of the current situation which will include extensive public participation. This will be complete in summer 2021. Alongside the health check detailed analysis of the public realm and of transportation will be taking place, with a public realm strategy and transportation modelling completed by Autumn 2021. The project team will identify a list of projects, based on research and analysis of issues and opportunities and targeted to available funding. Business case feasibility analysis will be undertaken and at the end of 2021 and early 2022, with a draft and final report completed by Autumn 2022.

Sustainable development means balancing development and growth with between the needs of a growing world population and the finite resources and health of our planet. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that were published by the United Nations in 2015 are the most comprehensive call for action and pathway towards achieving sustainable development by 2030.

There are 17 goals each of which are interrelated and underlaid by a comprehensive list of targets (169 in total) that are measured by specific indicators. Sustainable Swords will align with the SDGs and seek to achieve lasting outcomes for the society and the planet (i.e. people and environment within Swords) whilst recognising the symbiotic relationship between physical and ecological systems, human activities and social capital (particularly within the Swords Castle – Ward River Valley Park corridor and along Main Street).

The project team will undertake a benchmarking exercise to compare against the SDGs and seek to deliver outcomes that align with the SGDs, with particular attention given to SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities and SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals to ensure a people-friendly and partnership-driven approach to deliver ‘Sustainable Swords’.

It is critically important to involve children in the project and to consult with them on the development of their town. Children have often been forgotten and left out of the planning process, as a result towns and cities have been developed which often neglect the needs and wants of children in terms of how they use spaces, how they feel when in a space, what facilities they need and how they would like to travel. Children have an important role in building a Sustainable Swords and can greatly add to the process by bringing their unique perspectives to the project and offering solutions that may be overlooked by adults.

Ireland is a signatory to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and Goal 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities sets out a vision of how we make our towns and cities sustainable. The key element to making our communities sustainable is to ensure an inclusive approach so that all members of our community have a voice when it comes to developing a town for their future. Children are the future of Swords and without their involvement then an inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable town may not be achieved. For this reason,  An Taisce’s Green Schools are part of the project team and will be engaging with over 7,500 primary and secondary school students, undertaking audits of walkability and cyclability, and engaging with parents and students to understand what the children of Swords want their future to look like.

Ultimately, the success of the project will rely on stakeholders to understand the existing space and contributors to the quality of life in the local community.

Public participation is the key measure of success and therefore collaboration and public consultation is being prioritised and promoted throughout the process.

We look forward to inviting your feedback once again in Autumn 2022 when we will publish the draft Sustainable Swords strategy.