FERMOY LOSERS AGAIN

Dear Editor,

Fermoy and surrounding areas are once again to be the losers due to vested interests in the local mafia i.e., Fermoy Town Council and local business interests.

Once again we the ordinary people are to be deprived of a facility, which would bring pleasure and an escape from the boredom that is embedded in this town. Is it any wonder that antisocial behaviour is rampant all over the town.

This I believe is due to a lack of facilities for many ordinary people, not everyone can afford to pay well over a €1000 each year to join the leisure centre / gym / and youth centre.

Numerous people I have spoken to since the multi-plex cinema was announced with the new Shipton Development were delighted that at long last Fermoy was to get a state of the art cinema.

It would appear that once again we the ordinary people don’t count when it comes to improving the standard of living for people from Fermoy and surrounding areas.

The same old rhetoric applies as far as the business community in Fermoy are concerned - take, take, take and give nothing back, block any new development that might be seen to interfere with their pockets.

And as for our esteemed town council what can one say about that shower of muppets, oh yes no decent hotel, no shopping centre, no decent cinema, and no decent facilities for the youths of the town or surrounding areas to mention but a few items, which should be of concern to them.

I, like Peter Brady, (last week’s letters) will keep going to Mahon and Midleton and Blackpool to the cinema, as do many other people and we will also do our shopping in the decent shopping centres that these places have to offer.

So Fermoy loses again, and with the attitude that has always existed and it seems will always exist it is, as Peter Brady stated in last week’s letter only a matter of time before Fermoy will surely die.

Yours in disgust,
James Lane,
33, Liam MacGearailt Place,
Fermoy,
Co Cork.

ENTERPRISE CENTRE STILLBORN

Dear Editor,

I refer to the article in The Avondhu 20th August re the Forum Group’s (F Group) proposal to create an enterprise centre (EC) in Mitchelstown.

The idea itself and the mentoring by the Rubicon Centre are excellent ideas and much needed in these economically challenging times. The plan to involve the Leisure Centre Group (LC group) is bad, wrong and fatally flawed.

Your article left out a number of critically important points mentioned at the meeting. Also why the meeting was held at very short notice during holiday time is questionable.

First the suggested cost at €1.2M was not backed up, there were no associated plans and the figure appears to be a guesstimate rather than an estimate and was admitted to be ‘not definite’.

Also it does not include the cost of the site. Neither does it make sense with the stated cost of building an EC at the existing IDA/County Council Enterprise Sites at Cahir Hill at €2.2M or cost of converting an existing building at, I think, €1.9M+. Second the issue of ownership was raised and it was stated that “the community” would own it.

We have already had this with the LC group where 20 people are now the legal owners of the funds and assets raised by “the Community” for a swimming pool and leisure centre, and still no leisure centre some 16 years on and much wasted on abortive plans and to boot now no planning permission for a leisure centre in the town.

Thirdly if the canon’s field site were used to site the EC this would leave less area for the leisure centre and no room for expansion for either the leisure centre or the enterprise centre, which itself does not include plans for any manufacturing facility. The plan is half baked.

Having said that the preliminary mentoring proposed for September should proceed and be supported.

However, given the total ineptitude of the LC group, it would be far better that the this group be disbanded and the full €1.8M and all its assets given to build an enterprise centre preferably on the existing IDA/Co Co site. The question is by whom? The Forum Group is not elected nor is it properly constituted.

A properly elected and constituted community representative group needs to be set up with the primary principle of being totally open and transparent and truly answerable to the people.

Yours sincerely,
Kevin T Finn,
Kingston Close,
Mitchelstown.

VOTING NO

Dear Editor,

Having voted yes to the last Lisbon Treaty, believing it to be the right thing to do in the best interest of all the citizens in the state, we now find that this time we will vote no for the same reason and will now explain why: Having recently proceeded to re-construct an old facility on our family farm to bring it up to standard, both safety wise and environmentally we found ourselves in breach of planning laws.

We now accept that we are in breach of the same planning regulations but we feel we have been unfairly singled out and treated in an appalling manner for something that thousands of farm families have also done and are being left alone to get on with their lives.

We urge all ordinary good living people of this state to come out and vote no and hopefully bring this corrupt state which is all already on its knees finally to the ground.

Give it back to the people and hopefully rebuild it for the generations to come.

Yours truly,
Tom, Maureen and John Maume,
Kildorrery,
Co Cork.