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Introduction

Introduction

A number of Changes to the town over this decade have brought both Challenges and opportunities in equal measure. It is the sad reality that those who lead the town have never got us beyond the ‘Challenges’ aspect of the whole thing. The Withdrawal of the Cork Marts facility and Barry’s Timber Yard from the town, whilst institutions to Fermoy in themselves, were a long time in coming and a Greater level of preparedness, and a sense of direction as to what must be done with those sites would have significantly aided the progression of sensible development Plans. Nevertheless, it will do us no Good to regret past inaction. It is what is being done now, or more precisely not being done, that should worry us all most.
Having attended a few council meetings recently, the irony of the Chamber looking out onto, and being so Close to, the two empty sites is certainly nothing if not amazing. Just in the last few months, the Barry’s site is up for sale once again. Yet inside these meetings, one can witness a worryingly increasing but completely needless politicisation of developments vital to the future prosperity of Fermoy. Let us clear one thing up; all nine members of Fermoy Town Council supported the Principle of the Shipton Group development of the Mart Site. The proposals were rejected by planners, planners who had well made concerns about the scale and impact of such development.
What was needed in the direct aftermath of that decision, a potentially devastating one in the long-term, was to bring the Shipton group, the council’s members and its engineers back round the table with haste, to look at what Changes could be made, and to ensure that the most vital Elements remained, such as a cinema for the town, undoubtedly that should be to the centre of thought on this development, and possibly a modest number of retail units, realising that many already lie empty across Fermoy. But what we’re getting instead is petitions of support and, if we’re to believe it, organised rallies, as councillors find it more effective to their own ends to polarise people against the planning system than to do anything truly constructive. Political support is there but not the will.
Padraig Barrett, project manager for the Shipton Group said in reaction to the planning rejection, and I quote, “What made the refusal doubly surprising to me was that the Shipton Group had worked very closely with the council executive and one would have thought that the reservations expressed in the refusal would have been adequately addressed in the original application”. Perhaps if this is one thing we need to Change, it is the structure of communication that planners use in relation to developers, so they’re not unaware of problematic issues until a final decision has been made, Just as a cinema is what is most needed from the Mart development, in order to provide a proper social outlet, particularly for Young people, so also a hotel is required for the town so that we as a unit can regain our level footing.