City Status group has ignited a fire for us all
Dear Sir,
I warmly welcome the report presented by the Drogheda City Status group and planning expert Dr. Brian Hughes in support of Drogheda’s bid for city status and inclusion in the government’s forthcoming “Ireland 2040” plan.
It was fantastic to be in Buswell’s Hotel last Wednesday, a stone’s throw from Leinster House, for the launch of this report, which sets out incontrovertible evidence for making Drogheda a city and ensuring that it gets its fair share of investment over the next 20 years.
Faced with this report, the government and its mandarins, who seem intent on doing Drogheda down at every opportunity, must now right the wrong they did to our town when they failed to mention it in the draft Ireland 2040 plan published last September. Despite being the biggest town in Ireland, bigger even than Waterford City, Drogheda was completely overlooked.
The draft 2040 plan is a dagger aimed at the heart of Drogheda. It aims to carve up investment and infrastructural development projects amongst the six existing cities in Ireland. If it is given statutory effect, as the government plans, it will turn Drogheda into an economic backwater overnight and blight the future of the town for decades to come.
The Drogheda City Status group had now ignited a fire of righteous fury amongst the citizens of Drogheda and I call on the residents, traders and community organisations of the town to rise up and mobilise behind the group’s campaign. Drogheda needs a seat at the top table, not the scraps from it. If the government won’t accord us our rightful place, then we must all unite and demand it. Drogheda deserves no less.