Waterford Alliance for Sustainable Inner City Development.

merlante wrote:

Catherine Swift is just a local nutcase.

I'm curious.My knowledge of her is only in regard to Bernard McCan'ts group and the fact that she is involved in Save Viking Waterford group.Is there something else?

merlante wrote:

All I can say is, where's the rest of Waterford?

This is the thing.You can call door to door with a petition to oppose the a development.You can give some spin about nasty developers,Parks for our kids being bulldozed and old people being thrown out on the street and the avarage person will think "shock horror.I can't let this happen".

You could also go around door to door with a petition in support and spin an equally populist line like,Potrntially 1000 jobs in the city and the regeneration of the largest derelict inner city area.The same person would sign the petition.


The rest of Waterford are either unaware of all the facts,are indifferent or are willing to tut,tut from the sidelines.

IMO most people are pissed off with Bernard McCan't and his entourage of NIMBYs.I have only seen one person defending him on this forum and this person resorted to calling people who didn't come around to her line of thinking as Nazis.The only other person I believe was just a visitor to the Waterford forum and did not know the full facts.I looked at this persons other posts and I think they are basically a troll with the amount of disagreement with just abut everyone.

What I am proposing is trying to organise somthing that will do something to counter McCan't and his crew.It doesn't have to be time consuming.It can be as simple as a few emails and letters to the Newspapers.

That’s very observant of you Merlante:) I’m also not residing in Waterford anymore either. However just because we’re not there does not mean we’re impotent (Using an analogy here!).

I’ve attended two WASICD meetings when it started. I and a few other people were vocal in our opposition to the opposers. There were other people there also who were silent. At the time I did not know if they were supporters of WASICD or not. It transpired that some of them were not. There was one guy that I know in passing who is/was a native of the inner city. I initially thought he was a supporter. A couple of months later his planning application for a small medium development in the vicinity was objected to by “you know who”. This is a perfect example (albeit more moderate) of evil being done when good men do nothing.

The Phoenix column in the News & Star have deployed a good tactic of no longer referring to Bernard Mc Can’t by his name. Any reference to him lately has been along the lines of “serial objector”. This is a good move as it denies him of any publicity he may be trying to acquire.

Also any potential group that may be formed should not come across as “heavy handed” or “take out the trash” or kick ass/gung ho. Otherwise we’ll just look like Skin Heads picking on OAPs. Remember our local Republicans are trying to make political capital out of this too.

The best start I think is a letter writing campaign,

Letter of Petition to Waterford City Council.

Re: Opposition to the Waterford Alliance for Sustainable Inner City Development.


There has been much controversy in Waterford recently regarding proposed developments in the City centre. This has recently focused on proposals for the site of the old St Stephens Brewery. The initial proposal for this site was objected to by a pressure group calling itself the Waterford Alliance for Sustainable Inner City Development. This group was founded by a local Green activist who I will not refer to by name but who has been labeled as a ‘serial objector’ in the local media. It is the opinion of me and other like minded individuals that this label is well deserved. The reason as you know is that this individual has objected to practically every proposed development of any significance in the Waterford Area regardless of where it is located i.e. inner city or otherwise.

Those of us who oppose the aims of WASICD are very familiar with the threat posed to Waterford from other urban centers’. Waterford is threatened with being overshadowed by towns such as Athlone, Navan, Drogheda and Naas/Newbridge. If Waterford is surpassed by one of these towns then practically speaking we will have lost our place as one of Ireland’s cities. If this happens we will diminish our capacity to attract vital infrastructure projects such as roads and also social infrastructure such as hospitals. Foreign Direct Investment plus investment in our city by National business may already be affected negatively by the culture of objection and dissent that seems to be forming.

For reasons only really known to themselves WASICD have chosen to ignore this threat when pursuing there activities. This suggests to me that they either cannot see the bigger picture or else they are largely motivated by selfish interests, effectively nimbyism. WASICD is a fringe group founded by a member of a fringe party in Waterford. Members of other fringe political movements such as the socialist party are also vocal in the group and have posted letters in the local print media. It is in my view wrong for fringe groups that have no democratic mandate to be allowed to influence planning matters that immediately affect fifty thousand people. Our outgoing Mayor Hillary Quinlan referred to this in his outgoing speech.

WASICD has made much of issues such as the plight of the elderly in the effected area and of the issues around protecting our Viking Heritage. They have also raised the Red Herring of the population of the City centre being diminished in favour of large developments. All proposals so far have included residential units that are multiple in number to the residential units that would be demolished. Also by admission of the founding member of WASICD the quality of the new units are the best that he had seen so far. Similarly when Dr Catherine Swift referred to the Environmental Impact Statement for the proposal, her conclusion was that it was also the “best that she had seen”. Despite the evidence to suggest that the developers are in fact “playing ball” this has not stopped the usual emotive terms like “fat cat” and “capitalist” coming from individuals within the group. On a similar note the city councilors who voted in favour of the Rezoning of New St. have been accused of pandering to big business despite refusing the initial development and compromising on rezoning Wyse Park.

In the Munster Express on Friday 7th July it was stated by members of WASICD that the local residents are the real experts on living in the inner city. This is an audacious and populist claim. For a vibrant city centre and a prosperous Greater Waterford, the city centre as it is, is seriously lacking. Whoever the real experts are, they are certainly not the amateur town planners in WASICD. It was a relief that the majority of the City council voted in favour of rezoning New St. In my opinion it took courage to do this by those who put the needs of Waterford before political capital.

Finally this petition is not just about the need for a shopping centre in Waterford. If WASICD is successful in dictating planning policy in Waterford, then it or individuals within it may feel empowered to oppose grander projects like the North Quays. It is time to draw a line in the sand with this issue. By all means reject proposals if they are unsuitable. However not if they are motivated by someone who is inconvenienced temporarily by the sound of a Jackhammer and has no care for the plight of the rest of the people of Waterford.


Regards,

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