What can we do?

spankmemunkey

letsbet wrote: »

Too right. Of course what'll happen is that they'll fine someone one the outer ring road for a little dog **** and leave the travellers' horses ****e all over the place there. It's a nightmare to walk dogs along that road with all the ****e. Can't stand people who won't clean up after their dogs but if the law was enforced can anyone see a traveller getting fined €500 or whatever it is for their horse ****ting on the road or footpath?

Well this is really true, there cant be rules for one part of society and other rules for other, ye cant even walk past the halting site there in ballybeg where Templers Hall is, The footpath is covered in broken glass car batteries horse sh+t Horse Boxes and sometimes caravans, so its impossible to get by, call the guards and theyll tell you theres nothing ye can do, call the council and youll get spin.

While i dont want to run down the travellers i think the only way to resolve these issues is to involve them in any debate and try and discuss the issues with them, The issues cant be resolved, moaning about it, rather acting upon it.

Max Powers

Disabled car-parking spots are there for people who need them (disabled, wheel-chair, pregnant, old people who need them and people who have the sticker). They are not for waiting, nipping into get cigs or when your passenger has 1 or 10 mins worth of stuff to do in tesco, city centre etc

Nothingbetter2d

cocoshovel wrote: »

9. pick up your dogs shíte off the middle of the path please

there is a potential new product.... a doggie nappy... make it the law to have a nappy on a dog if your taking it out for a walk.

Max Powers

Just a reminder lads on point 6 already mentioned as we come into the tourist season:

6. Be helpful to tourists, if they look a bit lost ask, even if they are fine, they go away with good impression. From past experience they are usually looking for Waterford Crystal or the main shopping area.

And also, the city council have been pushing recently to do something about dog mess on the road. All owners have a responsibility, dogs should be on a leash in all public areas including the park. Non dog owners should tell them and as Cocoshovel so succinctly puts it:

9. pick up your dogs shíte off the middle of the path please

comeraghs

promote promote promote!

FishBowel

Max Powers wrote: »

6. Be helpful to tourists, if they look a bit lost ask

Get an old ice-cream van and put it in the city centre with someone inside answering tourists' questions. They can hand out city maps and brochures for where to visit.

BBM77

Max Powers wrote: »

5. Keep Waterford tidy, its my home town, I love it, I wouldnt dream of throwing rubbish on ground anywhere and if I see a newspaper or empty bottle on the street I often pick it up and stick it in the bin.

I was passing a shop today (here in Waterford city) and there was a woman at the checkout serving and smoking. When she was finished she threw the cigarette out the front door on to the footpath. Basically littering in front of her own premises, not to mention smoking in the work place. This attitude just boggles my mind. :mad:

thomasm

BBM77 wrote: »

Max Powers wrote: »

5. Keep Waterford tidy, its my home town, I love it, I wouldnt dream of throwing rubbish on ground anywhere and if I see a newspaper or empty bottle on the street I often pick it up and stick it in the bin.

I was passing a shop today (here in Waterford city) and there was a woman at the checkout serving and smoking. When she was finished she threw the cigarette out the front door on to the footpath. Basically littering in front of her own premises, not to mention smoking in the work place. This attitude just boggles my mind. :mad:

Name and shame, no excuse for that crap

SimonLynch

Potential-Monke wrote: »

Great point, but it's very confusing out there at the moment. The Musgrave group (Supervalu, Centra, Londis, Daybreak, Mace, etc) used 45% Irish products, Aldi/Lidl use 85% Irish products (ie: meats, chicken, fresh produce).

Londis are nothing to do with Musgraves, Mace and Spar are BWG, Costcutters and Checkout are Barrys. Gala also are nothing to do with Musgraves.

wmpdd3

BBM77 wrote: »

I was passing a shop today (here in Waterford city) and there was a woman at the checkout serving and smoking. When she was finished she threw the cigarette out the front door on to the footpath. Basically littering in front of her own premises, not to mention smoking in the work place. This attitude just boggles my mind. :mad:

What? today or in 1985? long time since i've seen anything like that.

BBM77

wmpdd3 wrote: »

What? today or in 1985? long time since i've seen anything like that.

Yes today, that is why I wrote the word today in the first sentence.

wmpdd3

Oh, your post doesnt seem to have aknowledged my sarcasim.

BBM77

wmpdd3 wrote: »

Oh, your post doesnt seem to have aknowledged my sarcasim.

No it was acknowledging your pointless and irrelevant comment.

BBM77

thomasm wrote: »

Name and shame, no excuse for that crap

Well I will if a mod won't delete it.

So can I?

old gregg

BBM77 wrote: »

Yes today, that is why I wrote the word today in the first sentence.

name the scumbag or GTFO. Seriously. This is where we live so pucker up or spare us the rhetoric.

ex_infantry man

Potential-Monke wrote: »

Great point, but it's very confusing out there at the moment. The Musgrave group (Supervalu, Centra, Londis, Daybreak, Mace, etc) used 45% Irish products, Aldi/Lidl use 85% Irish products (ie: meats, chicken, fresh produce).

the musgrave group don't include londis as its adm and mace/spar is bwg foods get it right lol

Max Powers

Who on here mailed, wrote or spoke to any of their reps or others in power about Waterford's issues?
- Jobs
- Economy,
- IDA
- Political reform
- smaller local issues

If yes, what was your issue about, who did you write to and responses?

Max Powers

Max Powers wrote: »

Who on here mailed, wrote or spoke to any of their reps or others in power about Waterford's issues?
- Jobs
- Economy,
- IDA
- Political reform
- smaller local issues

If yes, what was your issue about, who did you write to and responses?

Surely, people are informing their reps of the situation in Waterford, to get the ball rolling, I have recently posted letters/e-mailed/spoke to:

- RTE director re: possible closure of SE RTE office and its negative effects in light of many offices elsewhere

- Local councillors re: issue with same group drinking, urinating and intimidating on street behind city square (Olaf St. i think)

- local TDs and ministers re: highest unemployment rate in country here.

- Barry O Leary of IDA on lack of IDA visits/activity in Waterford

- Min. for jobs (Bruton) on lack of IDA visits/activity in Waterford

I have gotten reponses from most of them, Im a firm believer in if enough people do it, they will have to take notice. We all need to do our bit.
Did anybody write to others on different issues or same issues as Im begginning to think people just write their complaints on boards.ie and think that will better the situation.

Max Powers

So nobody has wrote to their Reps in relation to concern about unemployment, jobs etc in Waterford and the SE. (Maybe some have and just didnt post it).

On WLR news today, it was saying that unemployment in the South East has risen from 19 to 20% (CSO figures) + more long term than short term unemployed also, needless to say, still worst unemployment black spot in the country. F-all but a report done about it. Surely this is good enough reason for people to get onto the powers that be.

Im asking everyone to start writing/mailing their TDs and especially Minister for Jobs, Richard Bruton, Taoiseach, Brendan Howlin and Phil Hogan.

taoiseach@taoiseach.gov.ie
philip.hogan@oir.ie
minister@djei.ie
john.halligan@oireachtas.ie
ciara.conway@oir.ie
paudie.coffey@oir.ie
john.deasy@oir.ie

i often find writing a letter gets a better response than e-mailing.

Jason Todd

What kind of thing do you put in the email Max? Do you suggest things or do you enquire and ask what they're doing about particular subjects? Just curious!

Max Powers

For example:
The South East of Ireland has had the worst unemployment rate (20% according to 2012 CSO figures) in the country for years now and the government has done little to respond to the crisis in the region. Waterford City has been particularly hard hit (ABB, Teva, Waterford Crystal, Bausch & Lomb, Talk Talk etc).

• The South East Action Plan, as feared, has done nothing to alleviate the situation.
• 2 minor FDI announcements in last 3 years in Waterford. Only 1 of them materialised.
• IDA statistics themselves and recent articles this week (82% of FDI goes to Dublin, Cork, Galway) prove that the South East is not getting its fair opportunity when it comes to FDI investment.
• Waterford eliminated from IDA offerings to potential companies such as PayPal on excuses that have little merit (space and personnel).
• Lack of government investment
• Waterford now has more long term unemployed than short term
• No high-tech/IT industry of medium to significant size in South East. Any high tech industry is locally started.
• IDA claiming investment in Waterford by claiming successes of local companies as their doing.

after that I ask that they work to change the status quo and that Waterford/S.E. be given a fair share and consideration when it comes to FDI, IDA visits, government investment. Its not happening now or has been for years.

Thanks for the interest JT, please write to them. Im posting off some letters today.

fricatus

Fair play Max, I have to admit that while I come on here bellyaching an awful lot, I write fairly infrequently to any public body directly. I write a fair few letters to the national papers, but I think I'm going to start making a point of writing a proper letter - with a stamp and in an envelope - to various people in future. One a week at least from now on.

Anyway, meanwhile, here's a letter I sent to the Irish Times yesterday. With a bit of luck it might appear in the next few days:

fricatus wrote:

Sir,

According to a report in your newspaper on 5 June, research by Chris van Egeraat and Proinnsias Breathnach of NUI Maynooth on the subject of the National Spatial Strategy has revealed that in the past decade, Waterford and Limerick cities "represented 8.8 per cent of all foreign employment in 2001, but attracted only 2.8 per cent of employment in new foreign firms while losing 40.5 per cent of their existing foreign employment".

At a time when two of our main cities are losing ground in this way, it is madness that Minister Phil Hogan appears intent on abolishing their city councils and subsuming them into the neighbouring county councils. This will leave both these cities without a voice of their own and without any authority focused on maximising their potential. Meanwhile, much smaller urban areas nearby and around the country will still have town and borough councils.

Of course savings need to be made at local government level, but such changes need to be made with an overall plan in mind. Such a plan should include much more autonomy for our cities, including revenue-raising powers, plus responsibility for the coordinated and controlled development of the urban area and its hinterland.

The current plan is a shambles: it is piecemeal, illogical (why for example is there no plan to abolish Galway City Council or any of the borough councils?) and represents a move backwards to the outdated county-based model of administration. Worst of all, it will undermine two of Ireland's most important regional centres, precisely at the time when urban autonomy and "smart cities" are such major themes in social and economic development.

Yours sincerely,

fricatus

Oh and I also made this submission to the local government review group:

fricatus wrote:

Sir/Madam,

I would like to object to the proposed merger of Waterford city and county councils for the following reasons:

- Waterford city has managed itself for a couple of hundred years, through independence, two world wars and countless recessions. Why change that now?

- As an urban area, the city has a distinct set of concerns that do not fit well with the concerns of a largely rural area. As the economic engine of the southeast, the city should not have "half a mayor" or "half a manager". It should have a group of individuals whose sole focus is on the sustainable and sensible development of the whole city and its immediate hinterland.

- Local government boundaries in Ireland, based as they are on the historic counties, make little sense today from an administrative standpoint. Many suburbs, such as Shannon Banks, Ferrybank, Graiguecullen, the west side of Athlone, etc. are stranded in another county because of these boundaries, which are maintained seemingly as a sop to the GAA. Any change to how Waterford is governed should be as part of an overall review of such boundaries. Merging the two councils because they are in the same "county" just perpetuates this dysfunction. The major cities should all be responsible for managing and planning their hinterland, so that their policies are not undermined by conflicting priorities on the part of neighbouring authorities - an example being the proliferation of suburban shopping in Limerick, which has seriously damaged the city centre.

- There doesn't seem to be any pattern to this move; Waterford and Limerick appear to be singled out for such mergers, while Galway is to retain a separate city council. This makes no sense, as Galway is smaller than Limerick and only slightly larger than Waterford.

- This proposal seems to imply that Waterford city will be managed by a merged county council, yet towns such as Dungarvan and Tramore will retain town councils. So there will be town councils for 18,000 urban dwellers in the county, but not for the 49,000 in the largest urban area? This makes no sense.

- Certain large towns such as Clonmel and Sligo will retain borough councils. Is the plan then to provide Waterford (and Limerick) with such borough councils? In that case, why make the change at all?

Waterford city is Ireland's oldest city, and its city council has made huge progress in improving the city's attractiveness and efficiency. The council has been behind hugely successful events such as the Harvest Festival and the Tall Ships - the largest event in the country this year, as well as being a driver behind the return of Waterford Crystal to the city. It has a record of achievement and is a model for success that central government should be encouraging, rather than seeking to destroy!

This proposal could do huge damage to a city that has already been weakened by job losses at Teva , ABB, TalkTalk, etc. I would urge all parties to reject it.

Best regards,

BBM77

Made a submission to the local government review group myself as well. There was only about 30 submissions which was disappointing.

Media999

There should be a master list stickied of things to do in Waterford city and surrounding areas. Broke into groups.

For example a list of parks or places to bring kids. Imagine people just had a list that they could work off once or twice a week. Next time the partner asks what shall we do this weekend you take a look at this sticky for suggestions.

Maybe a list of places to eat that people could tick off where they have been and whats left that they could try.

Someone with a good knowledge of waterford make a thread called things to do in Waterford or something to that affect. Dont fill it with junk posts but good things to do.

Max Powers

• Do your Christmas shopping in Waterford (beware, there may be crowds, traffic, parking you may need to pay for and people in there)
  I have asked the people buying for me this year that they buy local, I will be buying all of my shopping in Waterford City too. Local retailers badly need our support or they will go under.
• Go in and soak up the Winterval buzz when it starts

comeraghs

Nobody (not even Sully) could surely defend the downgrading of WRH.

Can someone post our 3 government TD's e-mails & James Reilly's too here. I'd search them myself but I've only 5 minutes.


We could be returning 3 SF TD's in this constituency if this madness doesn't end soon.

nice_very

taoiseach@taoiseach.gov.ie
james.reilly@oireachtas.ie
Minister's_Office@health.irlgov.ie
john.halligan@oireachtas.ie
ciara.conway@oireachtas.ie
paudie.coffey@oireachtas.ie
john.deasy@oireachtas.ie

Sully

The hospital issue has its own thread, I think its best to keep such discussions there. Sinn Fein struggle in Waterford, and I cant see why people would be so foolish to think they are a credible party.

Bards

Sully wrote: »

Sinn Fein struggle in Waterford, and I cant see why people would be so foolish to think they are a credible party.

...the established parties can only blame themsleves when we the people, who are fed up with the endless lies and political spin and politics as usual, suddenly vote the only remaining alternative, which is SF in.

The fools in this cas are FF, FG and labour.