March4Tipp action group responds to Co Council plans for Tipperary town

The March4Tipp action group has responded this week to Tipperary County Council's new 3-year action plan to regenerate and revive Tipperary town. 

The group, responsible for a 5,000 strong march in the town last year, says that it notes the statement issued by the Council for a 3-year plan for Tipperary Town.

"Despite the group having written to Mr Joe McGrath, CEO of Tipperary County Council in December, in response to the commitments made in the Dáil by An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar TD, Mr McGrath has not replied to the group’s email," said spokesperson Katrina Quinlan. "A member of the local media passed a copy of the press release to the group."

In its email to Mr McGrath, the March4Tipp set out a range of issues that it believes are vital to the development of a workable plan to turn around the town’s decline.  "We asked Mr McGrath to publish a coherent, detailed and realistic plan addressing those key issues. In particular, we asked that the plan have clear targets for a reduction in unemployment and social deprivation.

"Despite a colleague replying on Mr McGrath’s behalf to say that he would deal with our concerns on his return from annual leave in the New Year, Mr McGrath has not yet replied to us. Instead, he chose to issue a press release that does not address the key issues that we believe need to be included in the plan.

"We call on Mr McGrath to finally reply to us on the important issues we put to him in December and we look forward to examining the full proposal once it is available.  The text of the email sent to Mr McGrath in December is set out below."

"Dear Mr McGrath,

 "Thank you for the response, via your colleague, to our email that attached our press release regarding the N24 disruption deferral.  Your colleague suggested that we can request a meeting with you in early January.  We think that this would only delay the Council in publishing a clear plan to give effect to the Taoiseach’s commitments that were made in the Dáil on 11 December.

"We are not sure what you would want to achieve if we were to request such a meeting with you. All of the problems facing Tipperary town have been well ventilated in public speeches, press releases, emails and social media.  Suffice it to say that the Council, as the local level of government in this area, should be acutely aware of the problems facing the town, especially with a number of local elected representatives to bring these issues to the Council.   

As you are aware, we have deferred the disruption of the N24 until mid January to permit the Council to publish a coherent, detailed and realistic plan for a process to reinvigorate Tipperary Town, along the lines described by the Taoiseach in the Dáil. 

"Following the publication of that plan, we will decide whether to go ahead with the disruption or suspend our activities until the town reinvigoration plan has been developed by the task force/working group.  In coming to that decision, we have set out below the features we expect to see in the Council’s plan to give effect to the Taoiseach’s commitment.

Leadership and Resources:

We think that the community would expect the Council’s plan to detail how the planning and the delivery of the reinvigoration plan will be led and resourced.

Scope

We think that the community would expect, as a minimum, that the scope of the reinvigoration plan will include the following issues:

Unemployment
Resources for schools to deal with disadvantage
Social disadvantage
Restoration and conversion to good use of derelict heritage buildings
Occupancy and use of retail, commercial and industrial properties 
Infrastructure, including roads (N24 bypass) and rail (especially timetabling and services to enable commuters to work in Limerick and Clonmel)
Preservation and support of vital community resources, such as:
Cluan Arann
Canon Hayes Recreation Centre
Mount Sion
The Moorehaven Centre
Knockanrawley Resource Centre
The Excel

"In short, the plan should be holistic and embrace all of the aspects of the town: social and economic.  We think the community does not expect to see a plan whose scope leaves out important aspects of the socio-economic redevelopment of the town.

Structure:

We think the community would expect the plan to detail the stakeholders to be involved and, in particular, to identify the State agencies that will be involved. For example, there is no point developing a plan to generate employment without involving the IDA and Enterprise Ireland. Developing a plan without their ongoing involvement brings an inevitable risk that the plan will not be delivered when those agencies are expected to fund and deliver activities under the plan.

Timeframe:

We think that the community would expect that the Council will set an ambitious and tight timeframe for the development of the plan to reinvigorate the Town. Given that the various issues have been well ventilated for so long and are, as a consequence, well defined, we would expect that a coherent and practical plan could be developed within 12 weeks, if properly resourced and led. The development of the plan will have to commence in the second half of January, so as not to overlap the Local Government elections.  The town must not become a political football.  Our problems are too serious to be manipulated like that. If the community senses that the intention is to set up a talking shop to get the elected representatives past the next election, we would expect the community to react very badly.

Targets/Key Performance Indicators:

A plan that is not targeted at specific outcomes risks generating activity for the sake of activity. Without targets, it will be impossible to know whether the plan is working or not.  We think the community would expect to see firm and clear targets, especially in terms of unemployment and ranking on the Pobal Deprivation Index. Clear targets should also be set for each issue contained in the scope set out above.  

Conclusion:

As the Chief Executive of the County Council, the community should see YOUR vision for the reversal of the neglect of our town; YOUR vision for the reinvigoration of our town, so that the next time the Taoiseach is referring to the best model for turning a town around, he is talking about “what they did in Tipperary Town”. If you lack that vision, will or capacity, the community will see it immediately in what you come back with in January and we will not be stopped in finding another way to save our town.

"We are all just ordinary concerned citizens who are worried about the rapid decline of the town we love. We should never have been driven to protest and civil disobedience, but now we have been forced on to that path, we will not stop until the neglect of Tipperary Town has been stopped and reversed.

"Canon Hayes used the phrase 'it is better to light a candle, than to forever curse the darkness'. The community of Tipperary Town and its hinterland have lit a flame, a flame that will not be quenched until you do your job.  Communities around Ireland have seen our flame.  You have the means to show the way forward, or to watch the flame grow.  It is your choice.

We look forward to the publication of a coherent, detailed and realistic plan, with measurable targets, by mid January."