After rolling our Easter eggs, we’ll surely have a sizzling summer!

For some, the wait for Easter was simply too much. An odd sip of Clonmel Chardonnay, or a smaller than usual glass of vino, was by all accounts just about acceptable. A wee nibble of the children’s bar of chocolate, when they were out of sight or better still asleep. Maybe even the odd raiding party on the sealed, time locked biscuit box, which has been clandestinely calling you, for the last few weeks.

After abstinence of many, many weeks, Sunday past brought welcome relief for the masses. The strange habit of devouring far, far too many chocolate eggs than you would have thought possible. Guzzling a copious quantity of alcohol was quickly followed for many, by the annual words of Solomon’s Wisdom “Never again!” Yet we can all look forward to the same purgatory, forgiveness and indulgence, in approximately 347 days time.

In the meantime, we can ALL begin to look forward to a regenerated Waterford City, with the exciting plans of the SDZ (Strategic Development Zone) on the North Quay. Sadly, no longer to be part of a bigger, better and brighter “North Waterford”. That hotel on the hill, finally being sold to a man with a vision and a passion for Waterford. The promise of a rapid build, development and delivery of the Michael Street Shopping Centre. These projects and many more, according to media accounts, will mean that we have to wait slightly longer for all our ducks to truly line up.

But in the very short term we will surely have a “Summer to savour” in 2017.

The annual Waterford City in Bloom collaboration, between Waterford Business Group and the Council, has in the past two years expanded beyond all expectations. Not to sit on their laurels, the organisers have expanded once again and this year there will be in excess of 300 baskets being displayed across the whole city. In particular, the businesses along O’Connell Street have come on board in abundance and this should be commended.

The 2016 Tidy Town judging panel, purposely singled out City In Bloom, as part of the increased points allocated to Waterford City. They also specifically stated, that they wished to see this noteworthy collaboration continue and expand for 2017. This is just what will happen over the next few years. Hopefully, in conjunction with supplementary proposals that have been presented to the Council, for a unique sculpture/display on the city centre entrance roundabout, at Plunkett Station, and a flag project that will festoon Rice Bridge with tricolours of the world – and not before time, I hear far too many of you say!

Summer In The City returns this year, after an absence of twelve months. Due in part, to the music festival that was Summerval, having been dropped from the playlist. There is a promise that this will be a return, to delivering what our populace and our visitors want. Good old street entertainment. A busking themed festival, has been much talked about. Maybe, if someone is prepared to grasp the mantle, this could take place during a future Summer In The City. Thus, expanding the offering and attracting an ever growing audience.

On the retail front we can already see business owners investing in our city centre. There are new premises opening, on what seems like a weekly basis. Many buildings are getting a fresh shiny, or matt coat of summer paint. It is great to see the variety of colour being displayed on our shop fronts. As individual as the shop products on offer.

 

The Apple Market’s new roof is taking shape and boy does it look great. Its steel frame, to this boy of the seventies, looks just like one of the Star Destroyers from the Star Wars series of films. Maybe we could ask some of the cast to officially open this multi-tasking space?

Running in tandem with the Apple Market’s brand new roof are the other open space/public realm works. These too will also transform our City to all who care to visit.

This City is at long last beginning to shout just that wee bit louder.

Just where is OUR money???

We have heard many a local radio news snippet, over recent months and read countless column inches in our local newspapers, about the millions of Euros promised for Waterford’s infrastructural projects. These projects were to be “game changers” that would bring some parity to the complete lack of “regional investment” over countless numbers of years.

Yet, we are now, how many weeks on, from the last General Election and can anyone honestly says we have received a €1 towards these so called “game changers”? So many political representatives indicated that these would bankroll Waterford’s economic future.

The North Quay, where work seems to have literally ground to a halt. Due, I am sure, to engineering concerns around weight loadings on the old, frail and fragile “piles” that are precariously holding up the hundreds of tons of rubble. This whole area has been designated as a Strategic Development Zone (SDZ), which is good news and I recall that €30 million had been promised and earmarked, by FG, to develop the site and link it directly to the City Centre. That was over 16 months ago!

Has any of this money actually been drawn down, excuse the banking terminology and allocated to Waterford Council to start this much needed regeneration process? I don’t recall hearing or seeing any big media fanfare announcing that the “cash” had been lodged into the Council coffers. Therefore I have to assume that NO money has yet been received for the SDZ to start and ultimately flourish.

This same sad story can be repeated at the Airport. We were promised many Euros to develop that runway, allowing larger jets access to Waterford and the 500,000 people of South East region. But, once again, not one cent of this appears to have come our way. In fact we are now being told that money is available for everything else, but the essential runway extension!

In the meantime, the people of the South East are discovering that Dublin is now much, much closer and easier to reach. The M9 has not a traffic light in sight and with the Newlands Cross flyover, the journey time to Dublin is more than manageable and predictable. The east coast N11/M11 route from Wexford is also to a large extent quicker than days of old and when the New Ross second bridge comes on stream, we will have a choice of two very fast direct routes to Dublin.

I also imagine that the business case for a consistent, less than two hour drive from Dublin to Waterford, is now working against us. Many FDI investors have far longer commute times to work! So the case for a regional airport in the south east diminishes even further. This assumption seems to carry some weight when we review the fact that only circa 6 FDI visits have taken place in Waterford this year! We seem once again to be on the road to becoming a less attractive alternative to many other cities and regions.

There is the ongoing debacle around UHW – no need to regurgitate the shambolic mess that some have created here.

So, these three are examples of promises that have not materialised. Money that had been “earmarked” for Waterford and yet none, nil, nada, zilch, seems to have been paid to us, to start our economic recovery and get our City and region booming once again!

On foot of the non-delivery of these funds, we are hearing far too many of our political representatives scoring points against each other. Rather than working out just where this alternative money might come from, they spin the “if we were in Government line”.

Why do other political regions deliver actual real infrastructure investment? Surely, all politicians have the same access to identical Civil Servants, who might just be able to point them in the right direction, explaining how to loosen the purse strings.

We are systematically being downgraded and this will continue unless we see the promised Euros coming our way to stem the tide.

Sadly, we appear to have too many King Cnuts (more commonly know as Canute).