Champion Front Page.... What are we like?

blackiebest

Wow, I buy the Champion on Wednesday and the three prominent front page stories are driving me loopy.

Firstly we have a pic of Senator Marc McSharry outraged that the WRC is being 'stolen' by Dublin. The senator outlines that he has spoken to all the teams etc, I wonder how often he spoke with the fans, the ones who were fleeced two years in a row by the greedy greedy ba@£ards running any and every scam they could. Well Senator, we are losing the WRC because it was sh1te, a sh1te rip off and we do not deserve to host an event of this caliber as we proved two years in a row. The Senator should have a look towards Galway and the approach to the Volvo ocean race for pointers on how to maintain and keep an international event the scale of WRC. Good luck to Dublin hosting the event, have a good look at Sligo for pointers of what not to do.

Then the O'Connell St re-opening. The people of Sligo should resist , using force if necessarry, this insane action. We should but we wont as we are as useless as the gobsh1tes we elected to City Hall. I mean have a look at the money being thrown about on this one, that's our money and we allow it to go through the the washing machine of City Hall which seems to disappear millions and only ever deliver half arsed results.

Then read about the 'uproar' over the 'shell'. I mean what are we like? How have we got ourself to this position, why are we not doing anything about it.

Sorry rant over...

easkey

blackiebest wrote: »

Wow, I buy the Champion on Wednesday and the three prominent front page stories are driving me loopy.

Firstly we have a pic of Senator Marc McSharry outraged that the WRC is being 'stolen' by Dublin. The senator outlines that he has spoken to all the teams etc, I wonder how often he spoke with the fans, the ones who were fleeced two years in a row by the greedy greedy ba@£ards running any and every scam they could. Well Senator, we are losing the WRC because it was sh1te, a sh1te rip off and we do not deserve to host an event of this caliber as we proved two years in a row. The Senator should have a look towards Galway and the approach to the Volvo ocean race for pointers on how to maintain and keep an international event the scale of WRC. Good luck to Dublin hosting the event, have a good look at Sligo for pointers of what not to do.

Then the O'Connell St re-opening. The people of Sligo should resist , using force if necessarry, this insane action. We should but we wont as we are as useless as the gobsh1tes we elected to City Hall. I mean have a look at the money being thrown about on this one, that's our money and we allow it to go through the the washing machine of City Hall which seems to disappear millions and only ever deliver half arsed results.

Then read about the 'uproar' over the 'shell'. I mean what are we like? How have we got ourself to this position, why are we not doing anything about it.

Sorry rant over...

Yes I do agree....."O GOD COULD I GO ON"

darealtulip

And the question will be (dare I ask???)

What did you do against any of it?:D

so, I did it now I go and hide!;)

Culchie

darealtulip wrote: »

And the question will be (dare I ask???)

What did you do against any of it?:D

so, I did it now I go and hide!;)

Ya see, that is the principal problem with this country.

You don't know who to compain against, or who to hold accountable. There's so many quangos, committees and umbrella groups set up you never get to get your opinion heard...it just reaches a glass ceiling.

The 'shell' logo thing is utterly astounding... we do stuff like that all the time and charge €40 an hour for artwork, this Dublin crowd gets €35000.

And there is plenty of talent around Sligo to come up with a new logo as well, isn't there a great I.T churning out great Design students every year?

darealtulip

Friend of mine just wanted some testing done by the IT, gave them 5000 euro and they put a student on it ad 3 months down the line nothing has happened, maybe thats why they gave it to a dublin crowed. I first hand noticed the lack of organisation at the IT. I'm astudent now!;)

As for the rest, fair point. Maybe this correction (refuse to call it recession) will change it all a bit but doubt it. If people just stop voting for the usual suspects it might change a bit. I have seen it in Holland when people suddenly changed their votes. The politicans changed their policies but after being voted in it was business as usual.:(

tedshredsonfire

cant understand the new logo. Both councils provide a servcie we need, having a new logo is not going to make more people use the service like a business. we use these local authoritys when we need to. Like giving the ambulances a new paint job in the hope people will use them more. can see o connell street staying closed if only the anger about it gets transmitted. did anyone submitt an observation to the council or just bitch on here?

blackiebest

darealtulip wrote: »

And the question will be (dare I ask???)

What did you do against any of it?:D

so, I did it now I go and hide!;)

Well, you have a point, however I live outside the town about 10 miles. I am very involved in local activities and feel that whatever I involve myself with then I constantly try to achieve the best we can. I recently attended a super conference on how to manage a 'festival in challenging times' and the lady who ran Galway Ocean race was there. To hear the progressive thinking applied for that event in order to ensure success was refreshing and inspiring. It was notable that although held in Sligo and free to anyone who applied, the confrence was very well attended by people from, Cavan, Fermanagh, Donegal, Mayo and the only Sligo Festival represented was the Cairde Festival, IMO the best value for money event in Sligo. The Sligo representation accounted for less than 10% of the people there. I feel that if tactics outlined at that conference had been applied to the WRC then we would be looking forward to 100,000 people returning to Sligo for the best weekend of the winter.

I am no political animal but the likes of Lissadell, Carraroe Retail, O Connell st re-open, WRC etc really grate on me. I am happy to stand up and be counted, especailly regarding the O'Connell St re-open. I was unable to attend the street protest but understand it was a great day and demonstrated how the people of Sligo really feel. I believe however that city hall see us as muppet tree hugging types and feel they themselves are beyond account to us the people. So I think we need to become more vocal/visible demonstrating our contempt for the millions and millions that are wasted each year in Sligo and many other badly run counties in this country.

I will attempt to find time to devote to this and assist any group working towards similiar ends, does any one know if there is a specific action group?
If there is will a contingent from boards join and work to stop the lunacy?

Essexboy

The Champion has deteriorated since it was bought by INM and become inceasingly tabloid.

Disagree completely re opening O'Connell Street. IF it it was closed as part of grand plan, excellent, but it was an isolated action. Plus the voices in favour of keeping it closed are mainly those of "Olde Sligo" eg John Mullaney (which explains why Jude Devins would not support reopening the street).

I know pedestrianisation can work; I have seen several successful examples in England but Sligo's attempts bear no resemblance to them.

dardevle

.


agree with you on the o'connell street debacle essex....the sad fact of the matter as regards the pedestrianisation is, that it was a hastily concieved gambit to make life for commuters living in the eastward, so uncomfortable that they would accept a route through the heart of the community for a bridge to open up land for developers....although the street has been closed for nigh on 3 years the reality is that the project has not been progressed worth a damn in that time but instead of crying foul on that front the people of Sligo are outraged that the half-assed attempt made at it will not be allowed to stay!
People are right to complain but don't settle for a sh*te job just because all we got in the past was sh*te!.
re-open the street, go back to the drawing board and plan the future of the city with the best interests of all it citizens at the very core of those plans.

tedshredsonfire

nice to see differetn views lads but ye are the fist two opposing views i have seen online so far. Fast forward to when they open it to a single lane put 20 cars on it waiting for the lights to change and you have a traffic jam all down castle street with people wanting to get to john street all up high street and teeling street with another on bridge street though they may change something there. we have been here before. as bad as traffic is now it was a hell of a lot worse when o connell street was open imho.
Fair play to jude devins.
how many of the same councillors voted to close it was it not a good idea then?
How many of the same councillors will vote to close it in a few years time again?

dardevle

.


many of those that voted for the closing of the street would probably say in hindsight that it was a mistake to do so without the nesseccary funding and proper planning in place...for too long in Sligo we have been making one bad decision to try and cover previous bad decisions -hughes bridge is the prime example of this, build the bridge in the wrong place, then build the "bypass" through the town to marry up with the bridge in the wrong place,then plan a western distributor road where the bypass should have been...its a familar pattern around Sligo.
why not just stop and draw a line underneath this and try to do better in the future.

darealtulip

blackiebest wrote: »

Well, you have a point, however I live outside the town about 10 miles. I am very involved in local activities and feel that whatever I involve myself with then I constantly try to achieve the best we can. I recently attended a super conference on how to manage a 'festival in challenging times' and the lady who ran Galway Ocean race was there. To hear the progressive thinking applied for that event in order to ensure success was refreshing and inspiring. It was notable that although held in Sligo and free to anyone who applied, the confrence was very well attended by people from, Cavan, Fermanagh, Donegal, Mayo and the only Sligo Festival represented was the Cairde Festival, IMO the best value for money event in Sligo. The Sligo representation accounted for less than 10% of the people there. I feel that if tactics outlined at that conference had been applied to the WRC then we would be looking forward to 100,000 people returning to Sligo for the best weekend of the winter.

I am no political animal but the likes of Lissadell, Carraroe Retail, O Connell st re-open, WRC etc really grate on me. I am happy to stand up and be counted, especailly regarding the O'Connell St re-open. I was unable to attend the street protest but understand it was a great day and demonstrated how the people of Sligo really feel. I believe however that city hall see us as muppet tree hugging types and feel they themselves are beyond account to us the people. So I think we need to become more vocal/visible demonstrating our contempt for the millions and millions that are wasted each year in Sligo and many other badly run counties in this country.

I will attempt to find time to devote to this and assist any group working towards similiar ends, does any one know if there is a specific action group?
If there is will a contingent from boards join and work to stop the lunacy?

fair play!

Essexboy

dardevle wrote: »

.


many of those that voted for the closing of the street would probably say in hindsight that it was a mistake to do so without the nesseccary funding and proper planning in place...for too long in Sligo we have been making one bad decision to try and cover previous bad decisions -hughes bridge is the prime example of this, build the bridge in the wrong place, then build the "bypass" through the town to marry up with the bridge in the wrong place,then plan a western distributor road where the bypass should have been...its a familar pattern around Sligo.
why not just stop and draw a line underneath this and try to do better in the future.

A previous County Manager - I cannot trace the report - said that one day Sligo would rival Galway.
Would anyone say that now?

Big_Mac

Essexboy wrote: »

A previous County Manager - I cannot trace the report - said that one day Sligo would rival Galway.
Would anyone say that now?

That depends, if you want to talk about the fiasco of Eyre Square when it came to re-developing it, then we could rival them on that front. Lets face it, we know how to balls things up in fantastic style

bonzos

blackiebest wrote: »

Wow, I buy the Champion on Wednesday and the three prominent front page stories are driving me loopy.

Firstly we have a pic of Senator Marc McSharry outraged that the WRC is being 'stolen' by Dublin. The senator outlines that he has spoken to all the teams etc, I wonder how often he spoke with the fans, the ones who were fleeced two years in a row by the greedy greedy ba@£ards running any and every scam they could. Well Senator, we are losing the WRC because it was sh1te, a sh1te rip off and we do not deserve to host an event of this caliber as we proved two years in a row. The Senator should have a look towards Galway and the approach to the Volvo ocean race for pointers on how to maintain and keep an international event the scale of WRC. Good luck to Dublin hosting the event, have a good look at Sligo for pointers of what not to do.

Then the O'Connell St re-opening. The people of Sligo should resist , using force if necessarry, this insane action. We should but we wont as we are as useless as the gobsh1tes we elected to City Hall. I mean have a look at the money being thrown about on this one, that's our money and we allow it to go through the the washing machine of City Hall which seems to disappear millions and only ever deliver half arsed results.

Then read about the 'uproar' over the 'shell'. I mean what are we like? How have we got ourself to this position, why are we not doing anything about it.

Sorry rant over...

Is that the same marc mac sharry who the sunday world recently reported a story on how he sold his house to the co co council despite other houses in the area being up for sale for conciderably cheaper:rolleyes: its amazing what friends will do for each other, the sunday world are of course well known for exposing upstanding members of our socity...as for the socal behaviour of some of our councilers and other "heads of business" in sligo ot leaves a lot to be desired

EuskalHerria

First of all in relation to the re-opening of O'Connell street I personally welcome it. There is a need for a pedestrianised o Cornell street, but in its current form then it needs to be re-opened and a proper plan put in place for both a street that is attractive and not just a road with some trees put in it. Also there needs to be a plan put in place for traffic coming from the east ward of sligo. A lot of the people asking for the street to remain open are not from the east ward and do not have to deal with issues such as getting to the hospital in cases of emergency without having to worry about going through city centre traffic.
I think for now and until a proper plan is put in place to solve the many problems attached to the current state of O'Connell street, then the street needs to be opened to one lane of traffic.

The actions of the county manager in all this can only be referred to as a disgrace. Trying to put people off the opening of the street by claiming to open one lane would cost just under half a million euro was laughable and possibly the worst attempt at a deterrent ever.
Then trying to help force through the bridge in the east ward when the community do not want it. There a lot more factors involved here than just O'Connell street. Its a disgrace and O'Connell street should not have been pedestrianised with the fantasy that it would automatically turn into Galways shop street until a plan was put in place.

Amhran Nua

Culchie wrote: »

You don't know who to compain against, or who to hold accountable. There's so many quangos, committees and umbrella groups set up you never get to get your opinion heard...it just reaches a glass ceiling.

No accountability is the problem here, and its the same problem everywhere, in Galway as well as others have pointed out. If the mayors had some real responsibility/power we might see some changes.

nearly

If anyone else reading this lives in the East Ward and thinks the street should remain pedestrianised, tell the politicians.

http://short.ie/pedsligo

Call them ASAP.

You REALLY think that opening this street is going to ease traffic for those from the East Ward?

LOL, completely laughable.

Think.

A one way road. Think of where traffic will come from. Think of the one way system already in place and where someone has to come from to get to the opening of the road... and think of where it funnels them to...

That is just. plain. silly.

When you start prodding the politicians it looks like no more than a coup and power struggle.

I wish someone in media cared enough to dig deeper on this. Stinks.

Yeah, the street isn't ideal, but traders and people are making the best of it. We're heading into tighter times. We need to invest in our communities and civic spaces. Keep it pedestrianised, the community might surprise you.

dardevle

nearly wrote: »

http://short.ie/pedsligo



You REALLY think that opening this street is going to ease traffic for those from the East Ward?



.

traffic management in Sligo is a misnomer...the situation in the town centre was never great while o'connell street was open to traffic and it did'nt improve by closing the street.
for a resident of the eastward the opening of the street to traffic means a reduction of 50% the number of traffic lights that have to be negotiated in order to get to Sligo general......could be the difference between the nurse or the hearse.



.

redarmyblues

nearly wrote: »

If anyone else reading this lives in the East Ward and thinks the street should remain pedestrianised, tell the politicians.

http://short.ie/pedsligo

Call them ASAP.

You REALLY think that opening this street is going to ease traffic for those from the East Ward?

LOL, completely laughable.

Think.

A one way road. Think of where traffic will come from. Think of the one way system already in place and where someone has to come from to get to the opening of the road... and think of where it funnels them to...

That is just. plain. silly.

When you start prodding the politicians it looks like no more than a coup and power struggle.

I wish someone in media cared enough to dig deeper on this. Stinks.

Yeah, the street isn't ideal, but traders and people are making the best of it. We're heading into tighter times. We need to invest in our communities and civic spaces. Keep it pedestrianised, the community might surprise you.

I am trying to make sense of this hysterical post, but am I to understand that when elected representatives act in the interests of the people against a county manager who acts in the interest of an elite that this is a usurpation of the proper order being a coup detat. Oh lord that makes me haw haw, so funny.

cronndiesel

i think there should be a bridge across the river some where down by the sports centre and the riverbank but theres a beautiful park and family amienitys there now with some gorgous views
i wonder would a tunnel or overpass work but with pipe bombs in donegal and the memory of sus devices that brought sligo to a stand still in the ninteys there proberbly er... pipe dreams (ugh sorry no humour intended here)
think o connell street is to small now for the current crop of new cars the new toyota corolla is now as big as the carina and the carina is as big as the camry and the camry is bloated out to the crown and the new crown is a USA motorway tonka toy altogether
nothing wrong with the designs of new yokes think they look fab in comparison to some of the bug eyed stuff of the late 90s but why are each sucessive generation of car bigger????
for health/safety of pedestrians the reopening of the liberaters road is out

nearly

redarmyblues wrote: »

I am trying to make sense of this hysterical post, but am I to understand that when elected representatives act in the interests of the people against a county manager who acts in the interest of an elite that this is a usurpation of the proper order being a coup detat. Oh lord that makes me haw haw, so funny.

The notion that the representatives are acting on the behalf of the people against some "elite" is really misleading.

The original decision to make the street pedestrianised was part of the Sligo Environs plan which underwent public consultation(!)

The Section 140 (which allowed the elected officials to override the decision of the Co. Manager & the public consultation) sounds more like usurpation and a coup if anything.

Looks highly suspect.

At no point in this process (since the first council vote in May) has a thourough public consultation process been undertaken. The shop keepers themselves were never asked. Declan Bree said people voted for the road to be re-opened when they voted for him. Did they know??

See the pages 4 and 56 of Ireland's
"Development Guidelines for Planning Authorities; Department of the
Environment, Heritage and Local Government," published in June 2007

Referenced Paragraphs:


page 4

"Codes of Conduct must be observed in making the development plan:
In making and adopting the development plan, the elected council,
acting in the interests of
the common good and the proper planning and sustainable development of
the area, must, in
accordance with the “Code of Conduct for Councillors” prepared under the Local
Government Act 2001, carry out their duties in this regard in a
transparent manner, must
follow due process and must make their decisions based on relevant
considerations, while
ignoring that which is irrelevant within the requirements of the
statutory planning
framework. Equally, local authority employees involved in the
preparation of the
development plan should perform their duties objectively and should
have no vested interest
in the contents of the plan – see the “Code of Conduct for Employees”
prepared under the
Local Government Act 2001."

pg 56

Section 5.2

"Councils should also actively involve citizens in the whole process
of making the plan,
especially those who may not normally contribute or engage in the
process. Councils
should consider innovative methods to encourage as wide a public
consultation as
possible. It is vital that, from an early stage, as much public and
political consensus is
built around the strategic direction the new plan is to take. Without
a strong central
strategy, it will be difficult to devise a coherent set of detailed
policies and objectives.
The preliminary “Issues and Options Paper” is an ideal mechanism for
focusing attention
on strategic issues at a formative stage in the review process."

hi_sir

blackiebest wrote: »

Wow, I buy the Champion on Wednesday and the three prominent front page stories are driving me loopy.

Firstly we have a pic of Senator Marc McSharry outraged that the WRC is being 'stolen' by Dublin. The senator outlines that he has spoken to all the teams etc, I wonder how often he spoke with the fans, the ones who were fleeced two years in a row by the greedy greedy ba@£ards running any and every scam they could. Well Senator, we are losing the WRC because it was sh1te, a sh1te rip off and we do not deserve to host an event of this caliber as we proved two years in a row. The Senator should have a look towards Galway and the approach to the Volvo ocean race for pointers on how to maintain and keep an international event the scale of WRC. Good luck to Dublin hosting the event, have a good look at Sligo for pointers of what not to do.

Then the O'Connell St re-opening. The people of Sligo should resist , using force if necessarry, this insane action. We should but we wont as we are as useless as the gobsh1tes we elected to City Hall. I mean have a look at the money being thrown about on this one, that's our money and we allow it to go through the the washing machine of City Hall which seems to disappear millions and only ever deliver half arsed results.

Then read about the 'uproar' over the 'shell'. I mean what are we like? How have we got ourself to this position, why are we not doing anything about it.

Sorry rant over...

Please explain the rip off i was at the event ok accomadation was expensive but as has been debated on rallying forums this is a problem nation wide when a big event takes place, the fan got to see one of the bigest motorsport type events about for FREE if you go to rally gb rally germany and other wrc events you will have pay for stage passes.

So mate dont go blowing the fans got riped off card as a person that has competed in rallying in the past and spent my hard earned money on a car to go out and compete and yes give the fan a free days sport those sort of comments make my blood boil,

I dont Know anything about mark mcsharry but fair play to him for fighting for his local area can you imagine that if this was monte carlo treir in germany or jyvaskala finland do you think people would not be highlighting this in the local press after all id say this was the biggest ever event to take place in sligo.
all i can say is fair play to the people of sligo that made this a top class event and i have been to many WRC events in my time.

You should be positive and be greatful to all the people that put there free time into this event and made it such a sucess instead of whinging about a front page of a paper

redarmyblues

nearly wrote: »

The notion that the representatives are acting on the behalf of the people against some "elite" is really misleading.

The original decision to make the street pedestrianised was part of the Sligo Environs plan which underwent public consultation(!)

The Section 140 (which allowed the elected officials to override the decision of the Co. Manager & the public consultation) sounds more like usurpation and a coup if anything.

Looks highly suspect.

At no point in this process (since the first council vote in May) has a thourough public consultation process been undertaken. The shop keepers themselves were never asked. Declan Bree said people voted for the road to be re-opened when they voted for him. Did they know??

See the pages 4 and 56 of Ireland's
"Development Guidelines for Planning Authorities; Department of the
Environment, Heritage and Local Government," published in June 2007

Referenced Paragraphs:


page 4

"Codes of Conduct must be observed in making the development plan:
In making and adopting the development plan, the elected council,
acting in the interests of
the common good and the proper planning and sustainable development of
the area, must, in
accordance with the “Code of Conduct for Councillors” prepared under the Local
Government Act 2001, carry out their duties in this regard in a
transparent manner, must
follow due process and must make their decisions based on relevant
considerations, while
ignoring that which is irrelevant within the requirements of the
statutory planning
framework. Equally, local authority employees involved in the
preparation of the
development plan should perform their duties objectively and should
have no vested interest
in the contents of the plan – see the “Code of Conduct for Employees”
prepared under the
Local Government Act 2001."

pg 56

Section 5.2

"Councils should also actively involve citizens in the whole process
of making the plan,
especially those who may not normally contribute or engage in the
process. Councils
should consider innovative methods to encourage as wide a public
consultation as
possible. It is vital that, from an early stage, as much public and
political consensus is
built around the strategic direction the new plan is to take. Without
a strong central
strategy, it will be difficult to devise a coherent set of detailed
policies and objectives.
The preliminary “Issues and Options Paper” is an ideal mechanism for
focusing attention
on strategic issues at a formative stage in the review process."

Sligo Co. Co. pay no more than lip service to public consultation, ie they carry out a consultation process as required then carry on as they see fit.

Please explain why you have a problem with elected representatives overturning the actions of an unelected official, what is your problem with democracy? Because I suspect you are the County Manager or one of his minions.

Also if the move to re open the Street is manifestly opposed by public opinon why would those who need votes oppose it?

"Development Guidelines for Planning Authorities; Department of the
Environment, Heritage and Local Government," published in June 2007

Referenced Paragraphs:

I do not see anything here that would insist on O Connell Street, Sligo being closed to traffic. There are other candidates for public space/pedestrianisation, Market St, Stephen St carpark for example.

Macroom Man

hi_sir wrote: »

Please explain the rip off i was at the event ok accomadation was expensive but as has been debated on rallying forums this is a problem nation wide when a big event takes place, the fan got to see one of the bigest motorsport type events about for FREE if you go to rally gb rally germany and other wrc events you will have pay for stage passes.
*
So mate dont go blowing the fans got riped off card as a person that has competed in rallying in the past and spent my hard earned money on a car to go out and compete and yes give the fan a free days sport those sort of comments make my blood boil,
*
I dont Know anything about mark mcsharry but fair play to him for fighting for his local area can you imagine that if this was monte carlo treir in germany or jyvaskala finland do you think people would not be highlighting this in the local press after all id say this was the biggest ever event to take place in sligo.
all i can say is fair play to the people of sligo that made this a top class event and i have been to many WRC events in my time.
*
You should be positive and be greatful to all the people that put there free time into this event and made it such a sucess instead of whinging about a front page of a paper

Improve your spelling and punctuation before you go on a rant against other posters.*

hi_sir

well im so sorry if my spelling isnt up to scratch but this a forum not school where do you get off telling me off on my grasp of the english language

Macroom Man

hi_sir wrote: »

well im so sorry if my spelling isnt up to scratch but this a forum not school where do you get off telling me off on my grasp of the english language

An English professor wrote the words, “Woman without her man is nothing” on the blackboard and directed his students to punctuate it correctly.
The men wrote: “Woman, without her man, is nothing.”
The women wrote: “Woman: Without her, man is nothing.”

Punctuation makes a difference!

Crotchety

Punctuation makes a difference, but no need to be stressful of it on a forum - is there?

tedshredsonfire

agree with both of ye, punctuation as macroom man was pointing out can make a staement be interpreted in a different way that you intended. because we cant change the tone of our type its hard to know sometimes especailly when we don't know the other persons personality. agree forums should be relaxed places also.
first one to invent intonation for forums/online ( and i don't mean smilies) will make a billion.

dardevle

.


woman-without her man is ....better off?:D


soz could'nt resist.(quickly closes window before wife comes in)
.

hi_sir

just because im not perfect im made an out cast well i tell you people like Macroom Man might want to get a life if all you have to do is sneer at my english

oh and im very sorry if my punctuation or spelling is not up to it but hey such is life build a bridge and get over it