Council Affairs: Mellor the Mayor’s man?

A MESSAGE has come back to me from a trader advising yours truly to cop himself on and stop making councillors and businesses alike look bad!

A MESSAGE has come back to me from a Limerick trader advising yours truly to cop himself on and stop making local councillors and businesses alike look bad!

By all accounts my weekly diatribes give some the impression that I’m on the Mayor’s man, a pro-Moran acolyte. I was as shocked to hear this as the Mayor will probably be when he reads these column inches this week.

Let’s clear this one up straight away. There’s no brown envelopes being exchanged here.

As far as I’m concerned, Mayor Moran from day one of his mayoralty, he has struggled to bring people with him as part of his future vision for Limerick. He has proved to be a divisive figure, as team Limerick now, sadly, constantly sees one faction fighting another due to his inability to head the local authority with true cohesion.

The executive Mayor gets it on the chin in these pages just as much as our muckers in Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. We have no favourites here in Council Affairs, nor do we have a personal gripe with first citizen, councillors, or traders.

With local businesses taking to the streets last week to express their concerns over proposed road closures, it was clear that they have genuine concerns about the future of their livelihoods. But rather than meeting with traders and working with them to develop retail, as well as quelling their fears over his Summer in the City plans, the Mayor ignored their pleas and suggested they were some make believe body.

For the Mayor to say, “My office engaged at length with Limerick Chamber, the recognised body for business here, which surveyed its members directly”, was, in my opinion, a loaded statement that could only offend members of Limerick City Traders Association.

The Mayor’s communication style has proved his greatest problem from day one. As Cllr Catherine Slattery told this publication last week: “The Mayor is constantly saying ‘work together’ but that will only happen if you agree with his views. If you disagree you are ignored.”

So maybe, people, on every side of the fence, work together for the betterment of the city and county.

It’s now way beyond time for Mayor, councillors, and local businesses alike to put on the Limerick jerseys and work together as a team. I’ll still be giving it to ye on the chin from the sidelines, but please, don’t shoot the messenger!