The Southern Regional Assembly welcomed stakeholders from across the region to Waterford City on 8 October 2025 for the third Regional Stakeholder Group (RSG) meeting of the Interreg Europe PROXIMITIES project.
Held at the Assembly’s headquarters on O’Connell Street, the meeting brought together representatives from national government, state agencies, local authorities, academia and regional networks to explore how interregional learning can inform sustainable urban policy and spatial planning in the Southern Region.
The session opened with reflections on recent project activities, including insights from the Riga study visit hosted by the Riga Planning Region in September 2025. Partners discussed lessons from Latvia’s approach to neighbourhood planning, participatory budgeting, and community-led regeneration, which are now helping to shape Ireland’s regional approach to “cities of proximity.”
Guest speaker Dr Dean Phelan (University College Dublin) presented the CONUNDRUM project, which explores how communities and researchers can co-create sustainable mobility solutions. This was followed by Catriona Bambrick (Kilkenny County Council), who outlined progress on the Ferrybank–Belview Framework Plan, a key cross-boundary initiative connecting Waterford and Kilkenny.
A central focus of the meeting was the co-design of the emerging Sustainable Place Framework (SPF), a new regional policy tool being developed under the PROXIMITIES project to help implement Regional Spatial and Economic Strategy (RSES) Regional Policy Objective 31 on sustainable place-making. Using the PROXIMITY Landscape Assessment Tool (PLAT) developed by Erasmus University Rotterdam, participants examined how accessibility, service provision and quality of place can be better aligned in towns and cities across the region.
The workshop generated valuable feedback from planning, transport and community development practitioners, helping to define how the SPF can become a practical, evidence-based framework for regional and local authorities.
Closing the session, the Assembly team outlined the next steps in testing the Sustainable Place Framework through three regional pilot areas: Ferrybank, North Blackpool/Kilbarry and Raheen/Dooradoyle, and thanked stakeholders for their continued collaboration and insights.k of PROXIMITIES and the development of place-based approaches in Ireland.
