2014 - highs and lows

JLenno

So what were Waterford's highs and lows this year do ye think?

Some highs that come to mind
- Crystal workers winning their pension battle
- Wintervil really got good national publicity this year can really call itself Ireland's Christmas festival
- West Pharma jobs announcement and saving the B&L jobs
- Water protests..really good turnout
- City and county council merger - controversial I know but seems to be off to a decent start
- Waterford 1100 did well given its total lack of funding and I think got better publicity than Limerick City of culture which had money thrown at it
- collapse of the WIT carlow it merger... a plan clearly not in WIT's best interests
- tourism initiatives like mount congreve viking triangle and deise greenway

Any others come to mind???

fricatus

Highlights:
- The ongoing improvement of our festivals and the way there seemed to be one after another from summer on. The Harvest Festival was my highlight - after a weak 2013, it seemed to find its mojo again this year. Spraoi and Winterval were both really good too.
- West pharma
- The hospital being renamed University Hospital. At least it now sounds like an important hospital, even if it isn't funded like one. :rolleyes:
- WIT pulling the plug on the merger with Carlow. Definitely not good in the short term, but WIT will be still be a strong institution when this government is kicked out of office, and can perhaps look forward to a change in policy. If it had merged with Carlow it would have been weakened for 10-15 years.
- Red Hat buying FeedHenry

Lowlights:
- The airport losing FlyBe
- The abolition of the city council. There is now no body that has as its sole aim the promotion and development of the city, and there is confusion over who is the "mayor". Shameful! And hardly any money has been saved.
- The breakup of the south-east hospital group. Being an offshoot of Cork is not in our interest.

STIG83

Low for me is the crime rate in Waterford city and stretches to county too. It's at breaking point.

Wlr fm are reporting a lot on break ins around the city, the most recent been Ferrybank church getting ransacked at weekend.
What can be done? These scum are running wild and no intention of stopping.

Max Powers

STIG83 wrote: »

Low for me is the crime rate in Waterford city and stretches to county too. It's at breaking point.

Wlr fm are reporting a lot on break ins around the city, the most recent been Ferrybank church getting ransacked at weekend.
What can be done? These scum are running wild and no intention of stopping.

build a big prison is my answer, not in Waterford though thank you very much...NIMBY.

Low for me has been a couple of times i was using or trying to use the Hospital and local healthcare services, had bad experiences and realised how badly underfunded UHW is compared to other comparable hospitals.
I have written to the minister for health about it, awaiting a reply.
Another low has been the disgraceful state of politics, politicians and indeed the public who fall for this abolish the water tax, USC etc and thinking we can have half decent services, social welfare facilities etc.

Highs: great festivals, some life in economy, some job announcements, city looking better than ever, still a lot more to do and more importantly there is hope and some positivity there that a couple of other good things could happen.

BBM77

A big high for me was the clear recovery in the city centre. Things like the old cinema reopening, Wetherspoons, some new cafés and restaurants, Pennies finishing its expansion, The Viking Triangle etc. There is generally just more people around now on a normal day. Hopefully 2015 will see City Square start the development they have planning permission for and the Newgate Centre progressing further.

Another high for me was the collapse of the WIT/Carlow IT merger. For once Waterford said no the small-minded political crap that seems to want to tie one arm behind our back the whole time.

A low was the poor performance of our government TD’s, Deasy and Conway particularly are simply atrocious.

STIG83

BBM77 wrote: »

A big high for me was the clear recovery in the city centre. Things like the old cinema reopening, Wetherspoons, some new cafés and restaurants, Pennies finishing its expansion, The Viking Triangle etc. There is generally just more people around now on a normal day. Hopefully 2015 will see City Square start the development they have planning permission for and the Newgate Centre progressing further.

Another high for me was the collapse of the WIT/Carlow IT merger. For once Waterford said no the small-minded political crap that seems to want to tie one arm behind our back the whole time.

A low was the poor performance of our government TD’s, Deasy and Conway particularly are simply atrocious.

What City Square planning?

BBM77

STIG83 wrote: »

What City Square planning?

They have permission to redevelop the Burger King section, the old Sully’s pool hall at the front and RTE’s old offices upstairs all into retail units. H&M are rumoured to be going into the Sully’s part. Not sure if that is still the case.

cookie.monster

BBM77 wrote: »

A low was the poor performance of our government TD’s, Deasy and Conway particularly are simply atrocious.

is'nt it a coincidence that both are from dungarvan

BBM77

cookie.monster wrote: »

is'nt it a coincidence that both are from dungarvan

What do you mean?

PS Conway is not actually from Dungarvan, she moved there.

fricatus

cookie.monster wrote: »

is'nt it a coincidence that both are from dungarvan

BBM77 wrote: »

What do you mean?

PS Conway is not actually from Dungarvan, she moved there.

Wherever Ciara Conway is from, she lives in Dungarvan, as does Deasy (or in that area at any rate). This means that they don't have any particular focus on or empathy with Waterford city (why would they, in fairness to them?)

What the electorate in Waterford city and hinterland need to do is vote for candidates who are focused on the city. About 70% of the county's population lives east of Portlaw, so if this happened, probably all four could be city (or eastern) based.

However we all have a vote, and if we insist on voting for people who don't/can't/won't represent our city, we only have ourselves to blame!

fricatus

BTW, just realised that this isn't the politics thread... apologies for going off topic...

cookie.monster

BBM77 wrote: »

What do you mean?

PS Conway is not actually from Dungarvan, she moved there.

i know she originally from tramore, but what i mean is the both are waste of space and from dungarvan