URBACT
URBACT and Longford: Connecting Communities Through European Collaboration
Longford County Council has been actively engaging with the URBACT Programme, a European initiative that supports cities and towns to work together to address common urban challenges, promoting integrated sustainable urban development. It is primarily funded by the European Regional Development Fund. Through participation in transnational networks, URBACT provides a platform for knowledge exchange, capacity building and the development of practical, locally-led solutions to regeneration challenges.
What is URBACT?
URBACT is a European Territorial Cooperation programme focused on promoting sustainable urban development. It enables cities and towns across Europe to collaborate through structured networks, sharing experiences, best practices, and innovative ideas.
At is core, URBACT supports:
- Peer learning and knowledge exchange
- Capacity building for local authority staff and stakeholders
- Co-creation of solutions with communities
- Development of Integrated Action Plans (IAPs)
Through these networks, cities work together on shared challenges – ranging from climate action and economic development to social inclusion and governance – before adapting solutions to their own local context.
Importantly, URBACT does not provide capital funding; rather, it focuses on strengthening the skills, governance structures, and collaborative processes needed to deliver effective regeneration.
Longford’s URBACT Journey: MAPS, UrbSecurity and UR Impact
Longford County Council has built significant experience through its participation in successive URBACT networks, each addressing different dimensions of urban regeneration. This journey – from MAPS, through UrbSecurity, to the most recent UR Impact network – demonstrates a progression towards a more integrated, community-focused and outcomes-driven regeneration.
MAPS (Military Assets as Public Spaces)
The Action Planning Network MAPS (Military Assets as Public Spaces) was focused on enhancing former military heritage as key elements for sustainable urban strategies, combining both functional and social aspects. Highlighting the potential of the dismissed military areas can be deemed as the new symbols of a more conscious and participatory urban planning.
Connolly Barracks is a former military site which closed in 2009, with the loss of 200 jobs and leading to the deterioration of the northern end of Longford town and was considered the ideal site for inclusion under the MAPS project. The output from this project was the development of an Integrated Action Plan (IAP) that addresses local issues surrounding the reuse of the former military asset and identifies relevant solutions and actions to address and overcome these problems. The actions emerging from the IAP were carefully chosen through a filtering and refining process using the URBACT method which is a particular methodology that is developed to investigate the scale, nature and extent of the problem in each partner city, and to identify appropriate and relevant solutions to these problems.
UrbSecurity
This Action Planning Network analyses strategies and projective concepts of cities’ design that could contribute to prevent segregation and anti-social behaviour, and consecutively to improve citizen’s quality of life and their perception of urban security and safety. The main objective is to implement an integrated and participatory approach to urban security by involving all relevant stakeholders in the process.
The UrbSecurity Integrated Action Plan (IAP) represents the work of the URBACT Local Group (ULG) and the network partners over the three years of the project. The IAP showcases how cooperation, collaboration and effective transfer of knowledge can translate into meaningful actions agreed by a diverse group in support of increasing the perception of safety and security in Longford Town Centre.
In Longford, the “Aonach” art installation in Garvey’s Yard looked at the potential for reimagined space to draw footfall and change perceptions. Funded by the UrbSecurity project, the installation aimed to redefine Garvey’s Yard as an inviting public space, visible from the Main Street, inviting users to explore and defining its position as a public space to be enjoyed.
UR Impact
UR Impact focuses on addressing a key policy challenge: to develop effective strategies for empowering local communities during processes of urban regeneration. The goal is to prioritise social impact and community-based practices by reimagining the way urban regeneration actions are conducted. This entails placing citizens and their social and ecological well-being at the core of the strategy, and defining a methodology for collective decision-making and civic participation in local urban regeneration strategies.
Over a two and a half year period, Longford County Council worked with the local community to develop an Integrated Action Plan to provide a roadmap for supporting the regeneration of Ballymahon through strengthening of the social infrastructure, overcoming social isolation, and improving connections within the town. This approach aims to ensure that urban regeneration projects put community at the heart of them and creates sustainable, inclusive development for all residents.
Key actions to support the delivery of the IAP included the establishment of a Men’s Shed and the Foróige Youth Services within the town. Following a successful community meeting in November 2025, a core group of men from the town came together to form a Men’s Shed, providing a space for local men to come together and meet and bring benefit to the town.
