County Council and City Council set to merge??

Smiley Burnett

Any thoughts on this proposal which is currently being openly discussed??

How would the county be affected by the obvious switch in power towards the city?? How would the smaller towns be affected??

FGR

Are they talking about the County Coucil merging with the City Council or throwing in Dungarvan Urban District Council as well?

The county would get a massive amount of additional resources due to the massive rates intake in the city.

Waterford and Dungarvan however won't be too happy losing a lot of that income.

Deise Tom

Said a fair while back it should happen. For a county the size of Waterford to have 65 councillors or something around that, add in county managers, city managers, town managers and other titles, is madness. We would be far better off putting the money into putting men and women out on the streets and road with shovels. How much do all the different managers and engineers get in a year. I would say what the County or City Manager gets would employ five or six extra outdoor staff. Add in the various other managers/engineers and if they were got rid of and one person had responsibility for the whole of Waterford, you could employ, say another ten or eleven people.

I know the councillors also wont be happy if there was a merge, as there would have to be less of them. But to be honest, if they are doing their job, they will have no fear as the people will re-elect them. If they are not elected to an all county council, then the people i think are telling them something about what they were doing in the first place. Of the 65 or what ever we have in the City, the County, Dungarvan, Tramore and Lismore, i would say that about 20 of them would have very few fears about not been re-elected.

Smiley Burnett

Deise Tom wrote: »

Said a fair while back it should happen. For a county the size of Waterford to have 65 councillors or something around that, add in county managers, city managers, town managers and other titles, is madness. We would be far better off putting the money into putting men and women out on the streets and road with shovels. How much do all the different managers and engineers get in a year. I would say what the County or City Manager gets would employ five or six extra outdoor staff. Add in the various other managers/engineers and if they were got rid of and one person had responsibility for the whole of Waterford, you could employ, say another ten or eleven people.

I know the councillors also wont be happy if there was a merge, as there would have to be less of them. But to be honest, if they are doing their job, they will have no fear as the people will re-elect them. If they are not elected to an all county council, then the people i think are telling them something about what they were doing in the first place. Of the 65 or what ever we have in the City, the County, Dungarvan, Tramore and Lismore, i would say that about 20 of them would have very few fears about not been re-elected.

the new council certainly wont have forty or fifty elected members, so the one to lose out will be rural-based councillors, and the big winners will be those based in waterford city, tramore and dungarvan!!

there will be no point in rural-based communities complaining about not having representation once this goes ahead, as there will be no turning back!!!

i dont think the people of touraneena, ballymac, knockanore etc will be happy to have decisions made for them by someone from ferrybank or st johns park!!!!

Deise Tom

Smiley Burnett wrote: »

the new council certainly wont have forty or fifty elected members, so the one to lose out will be rural-based councillors, and the big winners will be those based in waterford city, tramore and dungarvan!!

there will be no point in rural-based communities complaining about not having representation once this goes ahead, as there will be no turning back!!!

i dont think the people of touraneena, ballymac, knockanore etc will be happy to have decisions made for them by someone from ferrybank or st johns park!!!!

If it is to happen that we will have one council, surely it will have to be done in a fair way, maybe The three electorate areas in the city could see their numbers cut from 5 to 3, Dungarvan and Tramore Town councils could have 2 reps, Lismore as a smaller council could have one, and the numbers in the 4 electorate areas in the county could also be cut, Dungarvan say to 3 from from 6, Comeragh 3 from 6 (I think), Tramore 4 from 7 and Lismore 2 from 4 at present. The loss to Dungarvan and Tramore this way would not be a major one, as there is a number of councillors that are on both the county and town councils as it is. All you would be doing is cutting out the double jobbing.

I take what you say about some areas not been represented, but it could be argued that some are not been represented as it is. Use the area where i live for example. We have four councillors represent us, and i can say with hand on heart as far as i can see it only one of them comes into the area any bit regurly, maybe another one might every so often as well, but they wont wear out their welcome. The others you see them every five years when there is an election coming up and you get the you might think of me crap. Most (not all) of the councillors in the county are only looking after their own patch.

wellboytoo

I am fairly sure it is 38 councillors at the moment in the five authorities , all will be merged, a sure sign of this is the county managers term of contract is up in september and is not being renewed, a sure sign something is afoot

Deise Tom

wellboytoo wrote: »

I am fairly sure it is 38 councillors at the moment in the five authorities , all will be merged, a sure sign of this is the county managers term of contract is up in september and is not being renewed, a sure sign something is afoot

23 in the County (7 in Tramore area, 6 in Comeragh and Dungarvan areas and 4 in Lismore,
15 in the city (5 in each of the three areas)
9 each in Dungarvan, Lismore and Dungarvan Town councils - I think is it 2 or 3 members of Tramore Town Council are also County Councillors, and is it 4 Dungarvan Town Councillors are also county councillors. No member of Lismore Town Council is a County Councillor.
Thats a little more that 38 isnt it, even if there is 6 or 7 doubled up.

Sully

Town Councils should be scrapped anyway. You should be represented by a politician on the County council for your town - that's the idea. Replace them with voluntary committees. That's what they pretty much are anyway.

The City should probably have its own council considering the area it serves, I feel merging might be a bit risky.

dayshah

Sully wrote: »

Town Councils should be scrapped anyway. You should be represented by a politician on the County council for your town - that's the idea. Replace them with voluntary committees. That's what they pretty much are anyway.

The City should probably have its own council considering the area it serves, I feel merging might be a bit risky.

Why not just one council, and a sub-committe to deal with things that only affect the city (like parking charges).

Deise Tom

dayshah wrote: »

Why not just one council, and a sub-committe to deal with things that only affect the city (like parking charges).

Area meetings in other words. Told they happen in the county, but dont know how often.

Sully

dayshah wrote: »

Why not just one council, and a sub-committe to deal with things that only affect the city (like parking charges).

Because it would appear that the city council do a lot and that having one body to represent such a huge area would be messy.