I spent a good year of my life and a lot of my companies resources fighting the protest of saving Our Regal Theatre only to end up sidelined as an interfering outsider. With the Farmers Market project, I learned that despite the endless frustrations and slow ways of the bureaucratic mind that collaboration with these people works best . And they do have support within the community and are members of it and from their perspective have jobs to do. So alienating them is not best in the long term. Bear in mind that the creation of a temporary car park is something the traders in town are crying out for and so you run the risk of loosing their support and backing.
The situation at Suir Island is a reflection of a serious illness within our community ,the lack of connection, and the absence of a shared long term vision for the town etc etc .To build a sustainable response we need to engage folks in the possibility of something that will unite us all -the common good. Going down the road of protest will maybe satisfy a sense of wanting to be ‘doing’ something now, but without proper foundations you are asking a lot from a group of interested residents who have only had one encounter with each other.
Pat
