Future Ballyboughal
The Ballyboughal Smart Village Plan
Background
The Future Ballyboughal Report is a draft vision document outlining how the village can evolve to be more vibrant, sustainable, and community-oriented. It captures community feedback and ideas gathered through public engagement, covering themes such as village character, heritage, biodiversity, mobility, housing, amenities, and climate action. The report envisions Ballyboughal as a place that balances rural charm with modern needs—protecting its natural and built heritage while improving facilities and infrastructure for residents and visitors.
Key priorities include preserving the village’s identity through sympathetic design, restoring heritage buildings, and enhancing green spaces and biodiversity corridors. It advocates for better pedestrian and cycling infrastructure, traffic calming, and accessible public transport. The plan promotes sustainable housing that respects the village scale and encourages mixed uses to support local businesses. Community facilities, recreation areas, and cultural initiatives are highlighted as central to strengthening social ties. Environmental goals such as renewable energy use, waste reduction, and nature-based flood management are also central.
Ultimately, the report provides a strategic framework for guiding future planning and investment, ensuring that Ballyboughal grows in a way that supports the community’s needs, protects its environment, and celebrates its unique rural character.
The “Smart Village” initiative is a European concept designed to help rural communities adapt to modern challenges while preserving their unique identity and improving quality of life. It emerged from EU rural development policy—particularly the EU Action for Smart Villages (2017)—as a way to address issues like depopulation, limited services, and economic decline in rural areas.
The idea is that a Smart Village uses innovation, digital tools, and community-led strategies to boost social, economic, and environmental resilience. This doesn’t mean just adding technology; it’s about smarter use of resources, collaboration, and integrated planning. A Smart Village might introduce high-speed broadband to enable remote work, support local businesses through e-commerce, use smart energy systems for sustainability, or develop digital platforms to promote tourism and events.
Typically, the process starts with a community visioning exercise (like The Future Ballyboughal Report above) to identify local strengths, challenges, and priorities. Stakeholders—residents, local authorities, businesses, and NGOs—work together to create an action plan. Funding often comes from a mix of EU programmes (e.g., LEADER, CAP), national or regional grants, and local investment. The goal is to make rural living more attractive, economically viable, and environmentally friendly, ensuring the community thrives long-term while maintaining its character.
For over 30 years, we've worked to keep Ballyboughal beautiful and resilient — through thoughtful planning, active volunteerism, and strong partnerships with local clubs, schools, businesses, and residents.