Further community public engagement with regards to the planned upgrade to Thurles Town Centre has, understandably, been put on hold due to the Covid-19 virus pandemic.
Earlier this year, an on-line questionnaire had been commissioned by Tipperary County Council, in their effort to obtain public feedback, as part of ongoing research into this town centre project.
We are informed that same questionnaire received some 692 submissions by the agreed closing date. However, with the population of Thurles standing at, give or take, some 7,682 souls (CSO 2019), perhaps the feedback could have been more enthusiastically received by those residents with I.T. skills.
However, those who did complete the questionnaire, highlighted the more obvious; ‘Heavy Traffic’, ‘Empty Shops’ and ‘High Unemployment’ as their main issues of concern, in relation to this most historic of town centre areas. [General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) no doubt prohibits the public from reading the submissions.]
Environmental consultancy LUC (landuse.co.uk), led by principal landscape architect Ms Emily Beedham, has now been commissioned by Tipperary County Council, to assist in creating a more vibrant Thurles town centre, killed off in the past mainly by parking charges introduced by the very same commissioning Tipperary County Council.
Of course very few of the submissions, while rightly highlighting concerns; offered real solutions to the concerns they raised.
In the silent video shown above, purporting to come from Tipperary County Council, [Note, as we go to press YouTube inform us that only 73 people have viewed same to date.], at present only two immediate questions come to mind: –
(1) Is the 1798 monument, erected in 1901, [View Here], going to be removed entirely?
(2) Where is it going to be reinstated, or are we giving it away, like the arch entrance to the Thurles Workhouse; the Market House Bell from the Hospital of the Assumption; the cast- iron water pump and stone drinking trough last seen in Cathedral Street, etc. etc.? Unconfirmed rumours have it that it will be confined to a carpark.
Perhaps the fate of this 1798 monument has been discussed by local elected Councillors and now one or more elected members might like to inform our readers regarding its planned future.
After all public feedback is high on the list of Tipperary Co. Council’s daily priorities.
Give the statue a decent burial in the graveyard.
Trust you will understand this quote: “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality”. The quote is by Nobel Prize winner; anti-apartheid and human rights activist Dr. Desmond Tutu.