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DCSG and Drogheda councillors hold frank and open exchange of views about future of city

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DCSG met Drogheda Municipal Borough District councillors at the civic offices, Fair Street. Members of Drogheda City Status Group (DCSG) met with councillors of the Municipal Borough District of Drogheda at the council’s chambers in Fair Street yesterday (Friday). DCSG welcomed the opportunity to meet with councillors and to have what was a frank and at times passionate exchange of views in relation to the governance of Drogheda going forward. The meeting was chaired by Mayor of Drogheda, Cllr. Michelle Hall. “We were delighted to have an opportunity to make our case that a city administration is the best way forward for the effective administration of Drogheda,” DCSG Chairperson Anna McKenna said. “The views expressed on both sides of the table were forthright and honest, and although there was disagreement on certain things, we were glad to have an opportunity to express how we feel about how the city of Drogheda needs to be governed,” she said. “The campaign for city status has incr...
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Publication of draft cities bill a 'historic day' on Drogheda's journey to achieving city status

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Deputy Joanna Byrne TD with Drogheda City Status Group members Andrine Mendez, Sylvia  McCann, Ciara MacCormac, Anna McKenna and Anthony Murphy at the Cities Bill launch. Drogheda City Status Group (DCSG) warmly welcomes the publication of a draft Bill which they believe sets out a clear legislative pathway to the creation of a city administration for Drogheda. DCSG members attended the launch of the draft Bill in Drogheda this morning, at the invitation of local Sinn Féin TD Joanna Byrne, who has been working on the Bill with Dáil legislators for over a year. “This is a historic day on Drogheda’s journey to achieving city status,” said DCSG Chairperson Anna McKenna. “For the first time, we have a document which sets out a clear legislative route towards creating new cities in Ireland, with Drogheda as its model,” said Anna. Deputy Byrne said that, “For the first time ever, this paves a way forward for City Status to be granted to the place we call home”. DCSG agrees with Deputy By...
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Drogheda City Status Group's positive meeting with Junior Minister for Housing & Local Government

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DCSG Chairperson Anna McKenna and PRO Anthony Murphy on their way to Dáil Éireann. Representatives of Drogheda City Status Group (DCSG) had a very engaging and constructive meeting with Minister of State for Local Government John Cummins at Leinster House today. The meeting was attended by DCSG Chairperson Anna McKenna and PRO Anthony Murphy, and by Minister Cummins, Deputy Paula Butterly and five advisors. Minister Cummins had much empathy with Drogheda’s plight. He is from Waterford, which is a city – like Drogheda – that straddles two counties (Waterford and Kilkenny), and he understood the need to bring the “two sides” together to advance Drogheda’s situation. He also revealed that he has a relative living in Drogheda and was familiar with our situation. With the Task Force for Local Democracy set to release its findings imminently, the Minster could not pre-empt or comment upon what those findings might be, as the process is entirely independent of the Government and its Ministers...
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Galway, Waterford set to lose city status and face downgrade to towns? Drogheda shafted again

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Drogheda is a city by EU/OECD definitions. But FF/FG have moved the goalposts again. Drogheda City Status Group (DCSG) commiserates with the people of Galway and Waterford on the impending downgrading of their cities by the Government to 'Galway town' and 'Waterford town'. DCSG this week learned that not only does the current FF/FG Government not intend to grant city status to Drogheda, but the Government has announced a new (plucked-out-of-the-sky) population threshold of 100,000 for gaining city status. Surely this now means that Galway, with 86,000, and Waterford, at just over 60,000 population, must be stripped of their city titles? In an article published by the Drogheda Independent's online edition this week, with the headline 'Drogheda and Dundalk set to regain borough councils under new local government reforms' , penned by John Kierans, we read that Drogheda and Dundalk 'look odds-on to have local authority status restored in the next few years...
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Drogheda left out in the cold again

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Where's the outrage? Where is the indignance at the blatant neglect of Drogheda? How can anyone not see what's been happening for years in relation to the disregard for Drogheda by its two councils - Louth County Council and Meath County Council? Here's yet another in a LONG line of examples of how Dundalk is treated preferentially by LCC. Now before you start accusing me of being anti-Dundalk, let me stress that I have no problem with Dundalk getting investment of this sort. I just want Drogheda to get at least the same level of investment, and in fact more because Drogheda is a city with 52,000 inhabitants in its urban area. Louth County Council is progressing plans to create a link road between the Armagh Road in Dundalk and the M1 motorway. Great stuff for the long-suffering residents of that area, and a much-needed piece of infrastructure for Dundalk. Hats off, fair play and all that. One of the main reasons the new link road is being planned is that there is a heavy ...
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Drogheda’s port access route almost half a century in the making

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An aerial view of the only completed phase of the Port Access Northern Cross Route. There has been much publicity over the past few years about a major piece of infrastructure that is crucial to the sustainable development of Drogheda, Ireland’s newest city. The Port Access Northern Cross Route (abbreviated as PANCR and often pronounced ‘Pancer’) will, if it’s ever completed, serve as a ‘ring-road’ skirting the northern fringes of Drogheda, eventually linking Drogheda Port with the M1 motorway. The first phase, completed in 2024, linked the Rosehall Roundabout on the old N1 Dublin-Belfast road (now called the R132) with a new roundabout on Ballymakenny Road. The second phase will link that Ballymakenny roundabout with the Dublin-Belfast railway line. A third phase carries the road from the railway line as far as a planned new roundabout at Newtown Cross on the Termonfeckin Road, with the final phase linking the Newtown roundabout with the Tom Roe’s Point port facility on Baltray Ro...
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With no local area plan since 2011, Drogheda has become a planning 'free-for-all'

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The failure of Louth County Council and Meath County Council to formulate and publish a Joint Local Area Plan (JLAP) for Drogheda is a clear indication of how the county-based administration of Drogheda is failing Ireland’s newest city, Drogheda City Status Group (DCSG) says. No local area plan for Drogheda has been published since 2011. That plan expired in 2017. Local area plans provide a detailed framework for the future development of a specific area within the jurisdiction of a local authority. LAPs (or in the case of Drogheda, a JLAP because Drogheda straddles two counties and therefore requires a joint plan formulated by both Louth and Meath County Councils) deal with matters like housing, transport, infrastructure, community facilities, retail, employment and the protection of natural and built heritage. Once adopted, an LAP/JLAP is part of the statutory planning framework, meaning planning applications within the area must comply with it. It provides certainty for develope...
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