Boundary Extension for City?

The Committee’s considerations are summarised as follows:

1. The public consultation invited by the Committee as part of its work elicited
19,131 submissions, not including those from Waterford Local Authority and
Kilkenny County Councils themselves. Of these, 19,096 opposed any change in the
existing boundary. The overwhelmingly singular basis upon which such opposition
was based related to the potential loss of identity with Kilkenny County.

2. Notwithstanding the high level of recognition that the Committee gives to the
significance of “county identity” in the cultural and social life of Irish people, the
review had, due to its terms of reference, to consider all relevant matters,
particularly practical issues related to the most effective administration of the
functions of local government in an area that is proximate to the principal centre
of population for the entire South-East region – this being formally identified at
national level through its designation as one of the principal “Gateway” locations
in the country.

3. In relation to delivering efficiencies through re-designation, there has already been
significant reform. A focus on the most efficient means of service delivery by local
government was a direct consequence of the threat to the financial stability of the
state precipitated by the international financial crisis. Both local authorities in this
case have demonstrated a high level of commitment to their respective
communities, and it is the Committee’s view that there is very limited, if any,
scope for delivery of further efficiencies in day-to-day service delivery costs
through a range of reconfiguration of boundaries that it has examined. The
investigation carried out by the Committee has identified a high level of
collaborative engagement between authorities in the delivery of day-to-day
services by each authority to its constituent populations. The dedication of the
elected Councillors in each area was abundantly in evidence; they are real servants
of their respective communities notwithstanding the complex boundary between
them. In this regard, the fruitful consultation with those Councillors, and the
extent to which each Council provided extensive amounts of the baseline
information requested by the Committee (supporting their respective positions
and responding to detailed questions), is greatly appreciated by the Review
Committee. Notwithstanding this, it is our analysis that collaboration between the
two authorities is significantly less in evidence at strategic level than it is at
operational. For example, no joint Retail Strategy has been developed between
the authorities, and there is no implementation plan or joint working group to
deliver the jointly-adopted Planning and Land-Use Study since its initiation in 2004.

4. The Committee views the current configuration, designated at times of far lower
economic activity and lesser population growth and with little or no provision for
future expansion within its boundaries, as a practical hindrance to day-to-day
service delivery and a real anomaly where it comes to dealing with the immediate
hinterland of Waterford as the principal regional settlement. Waterford’s relative
lower level of economic performance in comparison with other designated
Gateways requires that it has the capacity most fundamentally to consolidate the
core of the city to the greatest extent possible. This must include control over any
matter that poses a threat to that consolidation. Waterford city’s success in terms
of the promotion of its individual identity around the city centre in recent years is
acknowledged. It requires every support to turn this initiative into economic
success, through implementation of a successful Strategic Development Zone
(SDZ) recently designated on the North Quays. All these regionally strategic
initiatives to promote the primacy of the city are supported by Waterford’s
partner local authorities in the South-East region, particularly Kilkenny.

The summary of the Committee’s recommendation to the Minister is as follows:
A. The Waterford Boundary Review Committee recommends the abandonment
of the existing impractical boundary designation in favour of the designation
of an area to Waterford that gives it effective control of the immediate
hinterland of the city that has expanded on the north bank of the Suir. This
designation includes provision for the expansion of that area to cater for the
forecast population and economic growth of the regional centre.

B. The Committee recommends a Boundary Extension of Waterford County into
Kilkenny County Council to include the area proximate to the suburban area in
Ferrybank. It has chosen to recommend the designation of a new Boundary
between the Authorities that will move the entire Electoral Area of
Kilculliheen and those parts of the Electoral Areas of Aglish and Dunkitt
contained within the Area of Interest that lie south of the of the N25 bypass to
the control of Waterford Council. This revision would have the effect of
retaining the entire Electoral Area of Rathpatrick to the east in county
Kilkenny, thereby retaining the village of Slieverue and the port at Belview and
its hinterland in that county. The Boundary as recommended follows those
electoral area boundaries that follow the line of an existing stream, a minor
tributary of the Suir.

C. In deciding a recommendation on the extent of such re-designation the
Committee recognises the extent to which Kilkenny County Council has, over
successive decades, invested very significant strategic focus on this area at its
southern end. Kilkenny has successfully promoted and developed Belview as
the new location for the Waterford-based shipping industry. In so doing, it has
followed many international precedents where the changing nature of
maritime trading, and resulting re-configuration of land-side ports, has
rendered historically city-oriented ports obsolete. The argument for a physical
connection with the city is rendered weaker by these practicalities; the
current location of Belview port is unhindered by city traffic and highly
accessible from the national motorway network, making it an effectively
regional facility. In addition, Kilkenny has largely preserved the green belt of
agricultural-use land between the port and area of residential settlement that
enhances the range of uses that can be located in the port area. Similarly, in
relation to the local village settlements, the Committee accepts the advantage
offered by Kilkenny that these places accrue from their individual identity.

D. For practical purposes the designation of the boundary was primarily based on
the 2004 Planning Land Use and Transportation Strategy (PLUTS) designation
of land-use and future land-use blocks and follows Townland and natural
boundaries (the stream that is a very minor tributary or run-off to the Suir) to
the greatest extent possible. It is recognised that other boundaries, such as
parish boundaries, will not fall so naturally on one side or the other of the
recommended line, but there is a limit to what can be equitably divided.

E. Kilkenny County Council will suffer a loss of Commercial Rates and Residential
Property Tax income arising from this boundary change that is immediately
and accurately identifiable. It will have to be compensated by Waterford
County for such loss of income, such loss being discounted by the relief from
the requirement to provide day-to-day services in the area in question. The
Committee is conscious that such saving will not be significant due to Kilkenny
Council’s requirement to maintain its compliment of service infrastructure and
manpower in the south county despite the lesser population and area to be
served.

F. The population living within the proposed boundary extension area in County
Kilkenny is estimated at about 4,500. The effect of transferring this area to
Waterford is likely to be an increase of one councillor in Waterford
Metropolitan District and a reduction of two councillors in the Piltown
Municipal District of Kilkenny County Council. As this would result in the
membership of the Municipal District dropping below the statutory minimum
of six elected members, it would be necessary to reconfigure all of the
Municipal Districts within County Kilkenny.