Council Affairs: And the beach goes on

I’M just back from my holidays at the seaside, with real beaches, I’ll have you know. None of these phony waterfronts for the Mellor clan.

But, of course, there was no getting away from the Mayor’s beach party back home, with local business owners and irate politicians constantly sending me videos of tumbleweed blowing up and down the Crescent over recent weeks.

And if that wasn’t enough to spoil their summer in the city, word also reached me in sunnier climes of his lordship vowing to run a second term, if there is a second term!

I was really tempted to stay out on my little foreign shoreline and just see my days out as a beach bum. The bickering and catfighting back home would drive you spare.

Why everyone can’t get along and work for the betterment of the city in unison is beyond me. More power to the Mayor for trying new things, even if they don’t always hit their mark with everyone.

But, if anything, the reviews that I heard of the Mayor’s Summer in the City were all glowing – even those that weren’t from his top lieutenants. Anyone I spoke to seemed to really enjoy the events, with social media coverage showing evidence of a much-needed buzz on our streets.

However, the road closure up at The Crescent is something that really needs to be looked at going forward if our Mayor is serious about working with people. A little give would go a long way and this seems to be one sticking point that just won’t come unstuck.

If you were to cast your fishing line here over the month of August, the only thing to take your bait would surely be a red herring. Businesses up this end of the city have now taken to referring to the Mayor’s summer programme as the ‘Siege of Limerick’ as trade allegedly suffers.

Over the last couple of weeks as I worked on evening out my farmer’s tan, I was inundated with videos of lonely ice cream vans on the city thoroughfare with not a choc ice being sold. The only activity on the street, according to paranormal investigators, were the ghosts of Frank and Malachy McCourt dancing a jig over Gerry Hannan’s mustard blazer.

One business owner I spoke to insisted that they support all the Mayor’s other activations but maintain that closing off the Crescent for the use of “about 20 people” makes no economic sense.

But as the man said, ‘you’ll never find your gold on a sandy beach’.