Done and dusted.

As Winterval comes to the end of its first week we can look forward to a busy Christmas and hopefully the many businesses in and around the City Centre will see a much needed boost in sales that will carry them through into 2016. In 2016 all we can hope for as a Christmas present is a much bigger slice of the recovery cake and that all the headline promises we have read and heard about in our local media will be delivered by those making the promises.

Remember, it is very dangerous to over promise!

Waterford’s Four are now in election mode and are willing to promise delivery on projects that in truth should have been delivered months and years ago. No doubt over the next few weeks and months we will be endlessly bombarded with just how lucky we have been in terms of investment. So we really must ask ourselves if what has come our way is good enough or can be accepted as the absolute minimum that was needed to be delivered over the lifetime of the last Government. I would advocate that Government has under delivered for Waterford.

The simple fact is that more should have come Waterford’s way over the last number of years and we must all understand that any investment, that has managed to travel down the M9 from Dublin, has not been nearly enough and, yes, we may well sit at the top table but we are still feeding off the crumbs thrown to us and we have still not been invited to choose from the menu.

At the last Waterford Council plenary meeting, held in Dungarvan, the Council passed the Waterford City Centre Urban Renewal Scheme. A Scheme that will see circa €4,000,000 come from Government and circa €4,000,000 come from Waterford Council. Why ALL the money for the Scheme cannot come from Government I do not know!

The final meaty document contains all the plans, altered plans and reference to the 76 submissions from organisations, groups, individuals, businesses and Councillors – well 4 Councillors to be very precise.

Councillors Mulligan, Kelly, O’Neill and Daniels appear to be the only four Councillors out of our 32 good men and women of the Council, who seem to have been bothered to lodge a written submission. I will hazard a guess that many more will claim a significant input, behind closed doors, in committee, to this development document – but it would have been fitting for us, members of the public, to be able to actually read and dissect our Councillors input and observations, so that we can judge for ourselves the level of that input.

The final document is now done and dusted and all indications are that the work will start early in 2016 with the promise that no work on reducing car parking spaces will commence until the gas works car park is delivered – first muted for completion some 4 or 5 years ago!

During last week’s Metropolitan Council meeting we heard that the demolition for the North Quay was also done and dusted (again) and the work would start in the New Year. However, not many people will realise that we are to be left with piles of “concrete road foundation stones” of around 5cm square.

Swindon's Magic Roundabout

This substrate will be left on the North Quay until such times as it can be used.

The debacle that was the broadcast centre roundabout is now done and dusted. People power made all the difference and I have no doubt that this engineering master class has seen the Council receive the most amounts of complaints since records began.

It just goes to show that when we all work together mountains can be moved. Unfortunately, social media was almost instantaneously awash with Councillors claiming individual credit for what really should have been acknowledged as a remarkable team effort to turn around an experiment that a five year old Lego user could see would not work.

An attack on our Liberté.

I prepare to write this blog based on my experiences of the previous week and around events and meetings that I may have attended, which I feel the readers would be interested to read my commentary on. My blog is also a reflection of my weekly article in one of Waterford City's local newspapers. 

So, last week I was going to write and express my views on my attendance at the recent plenary session of Waterford Council, in Dungarvan, and, of course, the debacle that was the Broadcast Centre roundabout on the ring road, which on Friday afternoon was miraculously reduced to one lane at the apparent insistence of the National Roads Authority, as part of some “continental style” traffic management experiment.

However, as I watched the Bosnia and Herzegovina versus Ireland qualifier, on a foggy night in Zenica, social media started to light up and flash reports of gun attacks and bombings taking place across the whole of Paris.

As the news started to filter through it became very apparent that Paris was once again under attack and, for the second time in 2015, there was a Multi Pronged Terrorist Attack (MPTA) taking place across the capital city of France. No one could have imagined that only ten months on from the Charlie Hebdo and Jewish supermarket attacks that we would once again be revisiting all the horrors associated with a coordinated and heinous attack on the City, the nation and the people that live by the motto “Liberté, Egalité and Fraternité”.

By now there have been thousands of words written about last Friday’s MPTA and perhaps more worryingly for all of us is that this latest attack was not aimed at one organisation but unmistakably targeted a nation and its people. Worryingly, this latest attack targeted more than just the French nation as it also targeted Germany and the USA. The German football team were playing in the Stade de France and a US band was playing in the Bataclan Theatre, and if it was not for an observant security guard a suicide bomber would have accessed fans in the Stade de France!

We are now beginning to see a new type of terrorism that can coordinate and operate multiple near-simultaneous bombings and shootings and questions have to be asked if our Western security forces can cope with and prevent such coordinated attacks in the future. I fear that the determined terrorists we are now facing will always manage to evade security forces, as these can never be 100% secure, and inflict their own perverted style of justice on our Western world.

The future of free border access across Europe, which were created in 1985 with The Schengen Agreement, must now to be reviewed as evidence emerges on how the terrorists were able to travel freely crossing borders in cars weighed down with weapons, bombs and ammunition.

If we are to protect the very freedoms that allow us to write commentary in the printed media, post opposing observations on social media and permit us the opportunity air our own views, and argue these robustly in public, then we must be prepared to protect these fundamental rights.

Friday 13^th November will change Europe forever and, unlike the events in Paris of 7^th January, last Friday’s events will alter our views and our perception of just how safe our society is. As European nations begin to pick through the evidence that will eventually trace the origins of this monstrous attack, we must hope and trust that a global solution will now be found and implemented.

ISIS is a growing threat to the very way we lead our lives and we have to find a consistent solution that protects us in our own free society. We cannot allow terrorist organisations to dictate our liberty just because they fundamentally disagree with our way of living. We must jealously protect those freedoms and perhaps, just perhaps, we need drop our PC mumbo jumbo rhetoric and start some straight talking as how to best look after OUR hard fought societal freedoms.

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?

Tourism – the biggest industry in the World!

Tell me what you really think.

Those readers who know me will know that over the last twelve months I have literally come out of the closest in my Lycra and can officially be described as a MAMIL (middle aged man in Lycra). It is a hobby that has taken me all over the south east and further afield, around this island of green. In fact since I had to hung up my golf bats (due to old rugby injuries), cycling is a sport I have taken to my heart over the last 15 months and I am now just a few of kilometres short of cycling 10,000km. I, like most of today’s cyclists have an App, as there is an App for everything, and this App also show that I have climbed nearly 62,000m in those 15 months - hard to comprehend just how high that is.

Who needs the Tour de France when we have so much available to us on our doorstep here in Waterford.

The unseasonably good weather has allowed me to continue to cycle in my Lycra shorts over the last couple of weekends and last Saturday and Sunday was no different. So mild was the weather that I even managed to see a few butterflies out and about, and I also managed to be hit by several bumble bees, and being smacked on the face by a bumble bee at 30 plus kph stings like hell!

It has amazed me that as we head into the depths of winter our wonderful countryside and coastline are still accessible whether you are on a bike, in a car or simply just walking. Being able to see the vast array of autumnal colours that coat our countryside at this time of the year I can see why this is the favourite time for so many people. There were simply oodles of people out and about over the weekend and car parks that access our stunning coves and beeches, whilst not heaving, were very busy with families taking the opportunity to enjoy the extremely mild weather and get one or two last autumnal walks in, with the dog, before the winter weather finally decides to arrive.

The more I cycle around Waterford and the south east, the more I come to appreciated exactly what we have on our doorstep and I do often wonder if we are really utilising this natural beauty for the benefit of ourselves and as a potential tourism income generator.

We all know that Ireland’s Ancient East has been designed as a tourism driver in an attempt to balance the tens of millions being spent on dragging millions of tourist “out west” to the Wild Atlantic Way. Yet we read recently that funding for this project across Waterford and the south east has not been forthcoming and we must ask why? I would also hazard a guess that many readers will not be aware that the Ireland’s Ancient East project is now over two years old and we are yet to see any real economic benefits from this new branding.

 

In my 10,000km of cycling around the south east I have yet to see one sign proclaiming that you are in Ireland’s Ancient East and I am yet to see any real signs of branding that will encourage our tourists to spend their Euro in Waterford and this region. I fear that we are yet again being dreadfully acceptant that what has been delivered to date is satisfactory and adequate to compete with other tourism offerings.

We have accessible scenery that rivals the very best in Ireland and we have a tourism offering that certainly competes with some of the more established brands in Ireland and yet we seem to be, once again, the poorer cousin when it comes to funding and shouting about just what we have to offer.

More must be done for Waterford and the south east as after all tourism is the biggest industry in the World!

“E-A-R-L-Y” – we all know how to spell that word Enda!

It was suggested by Enda Kenny in last week’s national news that the 2016 General Election would be held in early spring and, just to emphasise the point, the Taoiseach actually spelled the word for us just to make it easier to understand, “Early in the Spring. E-A-R-L-Y.” he stated whilst at an event in Madrid.

Anyone would think he was a school teacher – oh wait a minute, he is!

At least now we know that the country is on General Election footing and have no doubt that ALL the political parties and independent TDs are gathering their troops and starting to plan their election campaigns. And this will give an opportunity to all of us, who have registered to vote, to plan our own questions for those putting their names forward for the 2016 General Election.

For those who have not registered to vote, there is still time to make sure that you can have your say and let me be very clear that everyone should register to vote and then everyone will be allowed to have their say and ultimately influence the result next year. There will no doubt be many sitting TDs hoping and praying that new voters do not appear on the register and, in fact, I am sure that many of these TDs are in fact quite happy at the very poor levels of political engagement seen across this country. This means that they will yet again rely on diehard traditional voters to come out and vote. Thus, returning the same average number of electoral votes we are now used to seeing year after year after year.

Coming back for 2016!

Now, just for one minute, imagine that the whole of Ireland were to become enthused with politics over the next six months and then just imagine how much effort and engagement our political representatives would be forced to make with every single voter. We would all feel the better for increased levels of engagement and therefore we would all be able to grill and demand a better performance from our representatives. You only have to look across the Channel to see what difference higher levels of public engagement has made to the political map in Scotland and in the UK in general. And only when higher levels of public engagement are made can we really hold our representatives accountable to us the V-O-T-E-R.

If we are to make changes for the better in Irish Politics then we, the V-O-T-E-R, must be more vocal, more interactive and we need to benchmark just how our representatives are performing.

We have heard over the last few weeks promises of this funding and that funding for Waterford City and County when, in reality, once you read the very small print, many of these headline grabbers are in fact “pipedreams!” If these are not pipedreams then the promise of funding and game changer investments must be delivered and delivered now. If they cannot be delivered prior to the next Election then Government’s promised investment in our City and County must be ring fenced and we need our existing TDs to “SHOW US THE MONEY!” before E-Day in 2016.

 

I fear that, as we move ever closer to an “E-A-R-L-Y” spring election, we will start to read and hear more and more spin about what has been delivered and what can be delivered in the future.

However, if we are really to see our representatives making a R-E-A-L difference to Waterford, then we, the electorate, must once and for all engage with everyone who puts their name forward for the 2016 Election. We must tell them what we want and let them know that we will be monitoring their performance, their promises and we will ultimately judge their honesty.

What we cannot do in the 2016 General Election is revert back to our old “traditional voting preferences” as that is just what we are expected to do.

Let us “C-H-A-L-L-E-N-G-E” the mediocrity in 2016!

Perception is everything!

When marketing or branding a product or service, that is predominantly aimed at members of the public, our perception is all encompassing to the process of actually successfully buying that product or service.

In circumstances where we have a poor perception of a product or service we are pre-programmed to avoid at all costs and to a greater degree we imagine, rightly or wrongly, that said product or service is inherently poor or inferior, regardless of what the marketing messages might be telling us.

By definition, perception is the process in which we use our senses to acquire information about the surrounding environment or a particular situation.

And how does this exactly relate to Waterford City.

It is very simple. Everyone’s perception of Waterford City varies in an ever so slightly different way because we all sense experiences in slightly differing ways.

To my mind the City still has a huge untapped potential that needs to be realised in the short and medium term to get the City back as the economic hub of the South East. In my current work role and through my involvement with various groups and committees I see firsthand the enormous amount of work being planned and being carried out. This work will, without any doubt, benefit the many businesses and therefore all the people of Waterford City and County in the very near future.

However, as I am so immersed in these processes my perception more often than not differs from that of my family, my close friends and my business colleagues. I just constantly see that the City and County have not really scratched the surface of what is possible to drive the region forward and for Waterford City to regain its rightful place as the fourth City of Ireland (in economic terms). 

I am always a glass half full person.

I do often feel that I am sometimes alone in that positivity or at the very least I am one of a very small minority that sees a positive future vision that will literally put Waterford back on the map.

I have advocated on many occasions, both in print and on radio, that every voter in Waterford should attend at least one Council meeting in their lifetime. This will give voters the chance to see at firsthand how Council runs, functions and operates through our locally elected representatives. It will also help people understand how the City and or County are perceived through the eyes our elected representatives and the council executive.

Is your vision of the City the same as that of our elected representatives?

With an ever improving retail offering we must encourage even more people back into Waterford City Centre to experience these new shopping opportunities and with the proposed additional shopping centre to come on stream we must take every opportunity to drive up footfall in the City Centre.

It is more important than ever to get this right as we now see out of City Centre retail villages offering a real carrot to attracting shoppers – lots of free car parking!

The many City Centre retail shops can encourage people across their threshold with sales, end of season sales and lots of seasonal special offers. So why can we not look towards opportunities that offer a similar enticing promotion based around parking your car?

Monaco where the first hour of car parking is FREE!

Will further reduced car parking rates or specific car parking offers, similar to those in Cork, Limerick, Dungarvan and Kilkenny, bring increased footfall back into to the City Centre?

Well, we will not know until we have tried and until we try we will always be perceived, by the people of Waterford and many of our visitors, as an expensive place to park a car - no matter what the car park sign states the hourly rate might be.

On a sporting day of green Waterford City is turned orange!

Start line - George's Street.

I was fortunate to be asked to Chair the South Eastern Cancer Foundation Solas Centre's main charity fundraiser in 2015, namely the "South East Run and Walk for Life". As a fundraising event it is of huge significance to the Solas Centre so how could I refuse the request. Being involved has literally blown my socks off in terms of how important the Solas Centre is to so many lives right across the South East. 

In light for this my blog this week is the actual final press release I wrote covering the "Run and Walk for Life 2015". I am sure that readers will get a flavour of the event and how we plan to make the occasion even bigger in 2016. 

On Sunday 11^th October over 2,000 people ran, jogged, walked and crawled their way around the Solas Centre Run and Walk for Life courses. It was a day of great joy and huge positivity as thousands of people took on the challenge of the 10-mile running route or the 5-mile walking route.

All participants set off from Gladstone Street at 12:30 on the dot and proceeded down The Quay, up The Mall and then spilt, with walkers heading up John’s Hill and runners heading out towards the ring road, before turning back towards the City at the Ballindud roundabout. Both the runners and walkers passed the Solas Centre at the Williamstown roundabout before once again splitting and then converging once more to travel down the Dunmore Road and finally into the People’s Park and across the finish line. Once medals were handed out, every single finishing participant and their supporters enjoyed the Fun for Life, which continued late into the afternoon.

On such a big sporting day when the whole country had literally gone green, with the Rugby World Cup and Euro 2016, Waterford City was a sea of orange as far as the eye could see.

Commenting on the successful day was Michael Garland, Chair of the Solas Centre Run and Walk for Life, “On behalf of the organising committee we would like to thank ALL the participants, our sponsors, volunteers and everyone who gave up their time to help with the event.

Team Pete.

To see so many taking part was honestly just joyous and we knew at the end of Saturday night’s registration that the numbers were going to be very good. In fact we have exceeded our target of 2,015 participants and that is testament to ALL involved and verification that the Solas Centre holds a very special place in so many people’s hearts.

The introduction of the 5-mile walk has opened up a whole new group of participants and we will start planning the 2016 event in the next few weeks once we have had time to take on board all the feedback. We know that to bring the event to another level in 2016 we have to look at some aspects of combining runners and walkers and we will do this in preparation for next year’s event.

Once again we would like to thank ALL those who took part and ALL those who helped with the event. We look forward to seeing you ALL in 2016.”

As Chair of the Solas Centre Dr Brian Creedon is responsible for operating and running the Solas Centre, “As Chair of the Solas Centre I have to thank all involved from the Committee to the runners and walkers. We set a very ambitious target, in terms of numbers, and I am thrilled that we reached and exceeded that target.

Team Dog!

From the moment Mayor John Cummins officially started the event to the moment the very last walkers completed the course it was one of the most rewarding 4 hours I have so far experienced in all my previous Run for Life events. 2015 will be remembered as the event that literally put the Run and Walk for Life back on the map.

With such a large event we could not organise it without the support of our many sponsors and event partners. The main sponsors in 2015 were of course Datapac and Beat 102-103 and the likes of Waterford Council, Garda and other volunteer organisation rolled in behind the event. There are far too many to mention and we will in due course acknowledge everyone with an open “Thank you” night in the Solas Centre.

Once again we would like to thank all the 2,000 participants and we look forward to welcoming you all back in 2016.”