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Business & Development

Business & Development

• In that regard I would Strongly Advise the Town’s Councillors to rezone land only for the construction of a hotel and associated buildings, as private residences are not needed in the area, nor is residential development appropriate for the area being looked at.
  Over the Christmas break, I welcomed the County Manager’s decision to suspend indexation on development levies, citing the lack of inflationary costs on infrastructure. However, I Also stated that this wasn’t enough on its own. I believe it important that the town council should
• Propose to the County Manager, by way of a tabled motion and follow-up meeting, that brown-field Sites Should be levied more leniently than Green-field Sites
  Such a proposal would have the dual role of recognising that Brown-field development is far less harmful in real terms, and secondly it would better enable the Town to maximise the vacant land within its rateable base, for the benefit of all the town’s people, in terms of Job creation, both at the construction stage and beyond. I don’t think anyone prefers the Status Quo. Additionally, and as alluded to before, there are a number of business & retail units not occupied across the town, from the main thoroughfare as far North as the Faber Castell development and south on the Cork Road. As they are absolutely no use empty, we would propose that
• Regulations on the usage of certain units within the town be re-examined, and, where appropriate eased back with urgency to Allow their use in the near future

• That a one-year moratorium be Placed on rates for start-up businesses in All locations in the town.
  The proposals I’ve mentioned already unfortunately can’t be enacted overnight. More immediate steps need to be taken to balance the books of Fermoy Town Council. We strongly believe that eliminating the vast bulk of a €1m deficit whilst maintaining vital services is a key prerequisite to restoring faith in the area. But with All Public money comes a degree of responsibility to spend it that appropriately. In light of the Green Party Leader John Gormley’s commitment to reform local Government and to strengthen the decision-making abilities of local authorities, this responsibility will become even more central. Yet it has been completely lacking to date. The Budget Proposed in December and voted on by the Town Council should be scrapped and the drawing board should be brought out once again.
  The cancellation of all future conference expenses will not in itself solve the gaping hole that has emerged, but it will certainly contribute to the tune of €12,000. The fact that a number of members continue to claim for these junkets is nothing short of scandalous in these times.
• From a moral point of view, those councillors should decide whether they are serving their community or themselves, and in extension to that decide between foregoing their expenses or foregoing their seats, as the last thing the town needs is leeches on its finances.

• In addition, the council should stop paying its €3k annual membership to the AMAI (Amalgamated Municipal authorities of Ireland) body. There is more than enough expertise amongst the people of Fermoy to advise on what a council Should be doing.

• Thirdly, I will be approaching all council members about signing a pre-election pledge not to draw ‘Retirement Gratuities’ in the event of any members not being re-elected. This Should immediately free up as much as €12,000 in much needed funds if all members are agreeable. We simply can’t afford these Golden Handshakes, especially now.
  The minister for Transport recently announced roads allocations for Fermoy Town Council for 2009 to be set at €287,000, a rate equal to the other town councils in the Cork East Constituency. While these are lower figures than could be hoped for, it is still a grossly unacceptable situation where our allocation for roads maintenance is almost matched by what we spend on picking up litter. €5,000 a week is an unacceptably high cost for a position, Albeit one that we can have Great Pride in.

• We urgently need a cost-efficiency review of these services to see how we can maintain our status nationally at a lesser financial burden.
• The many community bodies involved in keeping the town Clean must be moved to statutory status as members of a reconstituted Town Council committee on the issue

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