Festival are a GO, GO!

Believe it or not, Waterford City and County is one of the busiest festival regions in Ireland – FACT!

The annual Waterford Council Festival Budget distribution, took place at the first Plenary Council meeting of the year. Much of what was brought into the public gallery was of course discussed, agreed and preordained, behind closed doors, in “secret” Committee Meetings. With circa €1,400,000 to be allocated across the whole City and County, this is one of the key functions of our 32 sitting Councillors.

With all things budgetary, there are of course metaphorical swings and roundabouts. Some festivals/events in 2016 were one-offs and obviously some applications did not make the grade. The process involves the Council Executive assessing the organiser’s application for funding and this is then brought to our Councillors for ratification.  Accompanied by an associated increase or reduction in grant funding. The process is lengthy, involved and forensic. But it has to be, as these are after all public funds and transparency is paramount to the whole procedure.

The four big ticket items for 2017 are Winterval, with €430,000 being allocated and a potential income of around €250,000 from sponsorship, stall income etc. The Winterval committee will, I am sure, be re-jigged this year and I have no doubt that such is the size of the grant allocation, this will have to go out to national tender. Our two excellent food festivals, Harvest (September) and WWFF (April), receive around €150,000, which like Winterval, will be counterbalanced by some additional income. The Sean Kelly Tour (August) is supported by €180,000, which is, I assume, front loaded to offset later income sources and is therefore, in reality, cost neutral for the Council.

Finally, Spraoi (August), is supported by a grant of €67,000, which of all the festival allocations is probably not enough. Considering this was the event that started our love affair with festivals and events. Spraoi will shortly be celebrating their 25^th Birthday and perhaps we could ask our Councillors to be mindful of this and save up a few Euro, in the build-up to what will be a worthy celebration, in the coming year/s ahead?

 

The breadth and variety of festivals and events right across Waterford, is something to behold. From Lismore to Tramore, Dunmore to Ardmore, Comeraghs to Dungarvan.....there are so many to choose from, that in reality we do not need to venture outside of our county boundary to find something that tickles our fancy.

There are, within these processes, losers. Some events have had to have a funding cut, due to the very tight financial constraints which our Council must work with, because of continued reductions in Central Government funding. This in turn puts pressure on Councils to increase Commercial Rates, Local Property Tax and that wonderful “Cash cow”, that is car parking charges. In future years, to keep our festivals and events going, we will without doubt, need to spread less money further. This will be a challenge and in time may be easier to get blood out of a stone, than more Government support, allowing us to experience the wide variety of festivals we host.

The biggest cut was to the Summerval Festival. You will recall that back in August, I asked the question in this very column, “Are we getting Summerval(u)?”. For 2017 this will revert back to a “Summer in the City” type festival. This has excellent foundations, to build a first rate brand and with the support of ArtBeat, we should see a Summer long programme of events. Starting the June bank holiday and ending early September.

Circa 70 festivals/events were granted some form of Council assistance. Ranging from a few hundred Euro, to hundreds of thousands of Euro. I suppose that the tricky part will be encouraging all these festivals and events cross promote. Working together for the betterment of the whole County and across the wider South East region. If we are to put our stamp on the festivals and events map then we need to shout collectively!

Just look at what Galway espouses! According to their blurb, they are Ireland’s only festival City – a hum!

Happy Burns Night as well!

Time to find out who has the “Biggest Cojones!”

At the time of writing this wee column, Monday 5^th December, our Councillors had rejected the CEO’s proposed 2017 budget for Waterford Council. A budget which was presented to our 32 Councillors, at a plenary session, on Tuesday 29^th November. The basis of this overwhelming rejection, was due to the proposed Commercial Rates increase, to fill the now perennial black hole in the budget of around €1.3 million.

The meeting last week was watched by a “Packed” public gallery and press core. In reality, there were 5 members of the public in attendance. Only two stayed the course, for the three hour marathon meeting. In the end the members of the local press outnumbered the public by one!

Not really a great turnout for such an important meeting and the most essential function of our 32 Councillors.

The Pact, made up of our Fianna Fail, Fianna Gael and Labour Councillors, to a man and one woman, rejected unequivocally, the proposed budget. Based on the fact, that it was not the right time to be seen to be increasing Commercial Rates across Waterford City and County.

We even had Councillors Cummins (FG) and Quinlan (FF), who were both across the start line before any gun was fired! Reaffirming their position on the local airwaves, immediately after the budget meeting. Stating the position of their respective parties that a budget cannot be passed if it contains any Commercial Rates increases for 2017.

Now, I have no doubt that in the last seven days since the budget meeting, there has been an awful lot of shuttle diplomacy, Council Executive pressure cooker meetings with various Councillors, threats, counter threats and probably even the odd personal text message. Each side has been jockeying for position to try to see how a balanced budget can be passed.

The Pact laid down a very sizeable marker last week, when they rejected the CEO’s budget proposal. This was history in the making and a first for Waterford. Whilst, they did not show their hand there and then, or come up with an alternative budget, they did ask for two adjournments and another seven days of grace, in order to align their ducks. Seeking alternatives for the proposed budgetary increases in insurance, payroll and Irish Waterford fallout, to name but a few.

Now, the question must be, “Do the Pact have the Big Cajones to stick to their promise of a no rates increase?”

Seven days is a long time in politics and pressure influences people in many different ways. Many see pressure as a challenge and some just simply fold under it. With previous battle hardened cries simply turning into whispered whimpers, by those who don’t have big enough testes, to follow through with their promises.

So, if your are reading today’s newspaper and the headline news is a Commercial Rates increase for 2017, then we have Councillors who are frightened and are scared to carry out their one of their primary functions. Their spin after last week’s initial budget meeting was all for nothing and the dirty face of local politics has once again blighted Waterford’s progression.

However, ‘tis the season to be jolly and I for one, as a Scottish rugby fan and therefore an eternal optimist, hope that the Pact stand by their promise, to deliver an alternative budget with NO Commercial rates increase for 2017.

Waterford has yet to see significant green shoots and we need to get the message out that we are open for business. What we don’t need is yet another political charade. Bear in mind our competitors are slowly but surely sneaking ahead of us on many fronts. A wee trip to Wexford for example and you will see a significant amount of building, construction, cheaper car parking, heavy footfall....all done on the Q.T. They are not the only ones forging ahead of Waterford!

In many ways, having now aged several years, by being in attendance at last week’s landmark budget meeting, my appetite has only been whetted, as I await to see which of our Pact members delivers on their promise.

Your budget is just around the corner!

Waterford Council is currently preparing the 2017 budget. Last week we saw the first shots being fired in this annual battle of the abacuses. Our Councillors, quite rightly, opposed and ultimately rejected an Executive proposal that would have increased your household charge, roof tax or Council tax by 7.5%.

This planned increase was to fill an indicated, circa €1,300,000, deficit hole in the 2017 budget. Interestingly, a similar figure also needed to be found, for a fissure that appeared in the 2016 budget – due, we were told, to the recalculation of rateable income from mobile phone masts and Irish Water infrastructure (I think!). With the direct result that an empty premises, commercial rates charge, of circa 20%, of the rateable value being introduced and levied on all empty premises in the City and County.

To be asking struggling households to stretch already broken family budgets and pay further housing tax would take even more money out of our very fragile local economy. The decision of our Councillors to reject this proposal will of course mean that the indicated shortage of €1,300,000 will have to be found elsewhere.

The normal “cash cow” for such a shortfall is of course commercial or business rates. Unfortunately, there are only so many times that you can milk a cow and as we are on the third tier of Ireland’s recovery table, any money coming out of our delicate recovery is a worry.

To put it simply, there are businesses in and around John Robert’s Square paying circa €40,000 in commercial rates. Assuming that they are working on a generous margin of 10% then these businesses will have to generate €400,000 in sales just to pay the rates bill alone. Now add on salaries, electricity, water rates, employers’ liabilities, insurance etc and you will see that in no time at all, a business could quite easily have to turnover in excess of €1,000,000 just to open its doors to a paying customer – that is how hard it is to do business!

Taking any additional money out of our delicate local economy, will have a detrimental effect on employment. Unfortunately, everything is linked economically through very precarious bonds and any attempt to stretch those bonds, which are already at breaking point, will have catastrophic consequences. 

Whilst we can see very small shoots of recovery, we need to keep the momentum going in the right direction and taking money out of our local economy is not the way to go. We need to be promoting spending, supporting business investment and most importantly encouraging people back into the very heart of our City, to shop locally.

There are a whole host of holistic measures needed to make this happen.

For instance, we need to start bringing people back into the City Centre on Friday evenings. One way is by getting rid of ridiculous car parking charges that continue way past 6pm. How can “early-bird” offers work if you are paying €3 or €4 in car parking charges? Businesses CANNOT stay open on a Friday evening if the footfall is not there! As it is TOO expensive to open for 2 or 3 hours when you are paying such high rates, wages, utilities etc etc. If you are only turning over a few Euros in sales, there is no point in being open and no business cannot continue to sustain mounting losses.

Someone somewhere needs to make these brave decisions and tackle why we cannot attract footfall into the City Centre.

Our Councillors rejected a proposed increase in household tax. Now, despite an apparent black hole in the finances, they need to push the Executive to be creative with car parking charges and, perhaps, insist on a pilot scheme to get rid of Friday night charges altogether. Try this and see if footfall increases. Try this and see if the City Centre can in fact attract people from other free car parking areas around the City Centre. A simple solution to a rather large elephant in the room!

Alas, I fear that the fear of change will result in maintaining the status quo.

Waterford cannot just be for Christmas!

As we head inextricably towards Christmas Day it was great to see the City Centre so busy last weekend, despite the best efforts of storm Desmond. It has been quite clear for some time now that our traditional Waterford shopping days are now Thursday, Friday and Saturday and of course Sunday, probably being the busiest shopping day due to the unlimited FREE car parking we can all avail of.

It is great to see these increased footfall numbers that our City Centre retailers so badly need and of course the Winterval Festival and the Waterford Business Group’s “Shop Local Sunday”, the 13^th December, and the Winter Wonderbands competition, Sunday 13^th December, will all help to keep those footfall numbers UP!

What about after this Festive period?

Teresa Mannion taking on storm Desmond!

The fact is that Waterford businesses need to have continuous support to help keep these SME’s in business. To put it bluntly there has to be money coming across the counter in order for businesses to employ staff, pay commercial rates, pay insurance premiums, pay utility bills, pay vat, pay revenue etc. The cost of being in business is very high and enormously challenging and many of the businesses we love and support are in fact operating at tiny margins, some as low as 5%.

These tiny margins make it extraordinarily challenging to absorb any increased business costs and therefore the only way for many of these businesses to survive and grow is to see a reduction in business costs coupled with significant increases in footfall numbers across the City and County.

However, this message I fear is being loss on so many of those that represent us.

My journalistic colleagues and I do not for one moment class myself as one of our City’s journalist (truth is I just always wanted an excuse to say that phrase), have indicated to me that at the Councils recent “behind closed doors budget meetings” a cohort of Councillors had advocated an INCREASE in commercial rates and an INCREASE in City Centre car parking charges. Perhaps proof that these sources were correct was the fact that there was also a proposal to implement car parking charges in Dunmore East, which was subsequently defeated.

In the end what we ended up with, after I hope was some robust lobbying, was no rates and no car parking increases but a 20% commercial rates charge on empty shops and empty premises for 2016 and beyond.

The fact that such increases were even considered shows just how out of touch some of our Councillors are with the realities of being in business in the City and County. Perhaps these Councillors should identify themselves and explain to us their justification as to why they considered those aforementioned increases appropriate to the many businesses across the City and County.

I fear now that the new “empty building” commercial rates charge may in fact create a big hairy retail monster for the City Centre. If distressed property owners are in reality being forced to rent out their properties, you have to ask yourself just what type of retailer will fill such premises at what can only be very low rental prices.

Far from offering a carrot to getting premises let are we not in danger of filling our City and County with the very retailers that will drive footfall elsewhere, where there is better choice and a better retail mix?

To generate much needed increased footfall and the higher spend that will eventually attract new retailers to the City Centre, the very retailers that my daughter keeps harping on about, we need to create a holistic approach that gives out far more carrots and does less beating with a stick.

We are not there just yet and in order to get there we need more direct lobbying by the very people who understand the dynamics of being in business in Waterford.

Time to speak the truth even if your voice shakes.

It is Budget time once again!

The 2015/2016 national budget is now behind us and we are just awaiting some last minute discussions in the Dáil, some machinations in the Seanad, and then the final approval of the Finance Bill, traditionally, sometime in February and then it will be all over for another year and it could well be the last budget delivered by the FG/Labour coalition as we move inextricably towards the promised “E-A-R-L-Y” spring election. Before we know it, it will be 2016 and we will all have forgotten about Mr Noonan’s last budget.

However, for us in Waterford, there is another budget looming on the horizon – the Waterford City and County Council budget.

As the Council begin to mull over their financial figures and projections for 2016, we are once again nearer the time for our Council Executive and our Council Representatives to vote on the 2016 budget, which will be somewhere around the €132,000,000 mark! It is a time for us to see how our representatives perform in what is seen by many as their most fundamental task.

Will the proposed budget be passed? Will we see pact voting? Will we see strategic voting? Will we see a genuine forensics analysis of the budget figures?

This is the time of year when our public representatives earn their corn and it really is a time of year when we hope that they will look at the bigger picture, rather than a parochial view of their own wards, and make the right decisions that will drive economic investment back into the City Centre and further afield across the whole County. Failure to understand the economics of making sound budgetary decisions will have a profound effect on how we perform as a City and County in 2016.

This budget sets out the Council’s spending plans for 2016 and also sets income targets on big ticket items such as the Commercial Rates collection which in the last budget was circa €32,000,000, it sets the household charges, car parking charges and all the other associated cost centres that will allow the Council to operate for the next 12 months. We will also see spending plans outlined and discussed such as the delivery of the Waterford City Centre Urban Renewal Plans, festival spending budgets, roads maintenance plans, housing spending and much, much more besides.

The headline figures for businesses will, of course, be the Commercial Rates collection amounts and whether or not these will remain the same, increase or ideally, for businesses to invest, these should be reduced by up to 20%. A rates reduction will encourage investment, will increase employment and will make for a better City Centre.

Alas, I feel that these will remain the same as the last two years and yet the brave decision has to be the introduction of a significant reduction to help struggling City Centre businesses. Any offset in the reduction of rates will be collected with new businesses starting up and a significant rates reduction will go some way to encouraging the retail brands the City is currently missing to invest in Waterford. In addition a better retail mix will drive increased footfall and this in turn will also encourage more business start-ups and these new businesses will pay their share in commercial rates. Win Win!

Another brave decision would be the reduction in car parking charges and, if the Council take the lead in this process, then the private owners have to follow suits. This is still the elephant in the room and until we tackle this issue we will find it increasingly difficult to encourage the people on the “Dunmore Road” into the City Centre never mind further afield.

I still wonder if, due to their free car parking passes, our representatives see the car parking as an issue or perhaps they drive around wearing rose tinted glasses.

After all, if it costs you nothing, zero, nada, nil to park your car in Waterford City and County why would there be a problem?