Kilkenny Boundary Extension

God protect me from self-serving Kilkenny would-be politicians going off half-cocked! The latest is somone called Peader de Bluit who is making all sorts of uninformed pontifications about me on page 2 of this weeks Munster Express.

Listen. Is it too much to ask that Kilkenny County Councillors would operate within the bounds of National, Regional and their own Development Plan strategies? That's all that I'm asking for. It's not that complicated. Yes it is too much, obviously is the answer.

After years of trying to scupper Waterford with that excuse for a road - thank God that power was taken away from them and we will finally see a decent road to the Capital - Kilkenny County Councillors have now decided to try and undermine Waterford another way, this time by putting what is plainly a much too large shopping centre right outside the County Boundary. One of such a scale that it will undermine the very survival of the city centre if it is allowed to grow to the size it seeks.

This is against the National Spatial Strategy, the Regional Planning Guidlelines and Kilkennys' own development plan.

Now don't talk to me about District centres. We have them dotted all around the city and we know what they are. Honestly. The Kilkenny proposal is not one. Hence the spurious attempts to designate Ferrybank as a 'town' or 'suburban Gateway centre' - whatever makey up kind of a designation that is, so that they can justify the size of the shopping centre! If it were just a District Centre we would have no problem. In fact when that was the scale of what was sought we had no issue. It is only the many attempts (up to 20) since then to keep increasing the size of the centre that causes the problem.

But look. Other brains than mine will have the solving of this one. It will undoubtedly end up on the Minister for the Environments' desk. Lets see what happens. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. But if I'm right - I'm right.

Less of the personal insults from Sinn Feins' Mr de Bluit might be a good start though, however this plays out. It's not a fist fight. And I'm very sorry for Peader if he feels 'spoken down to' (according to himself ) but sure I wasn't speaking to him at all.

Photo shows me at the first Ferrybank Fun Day organised by the community, which I attended as Chairperson o Waterford Area Partnership.