The fight must continue to get city status for town
Dear Sir,
I have noted the anger and disappointment registered by many individuals and organisations in your newspaper since Drogheda did not secure its proper status as the Regional Capital of the North East on its way to becoming Ireland’s next city in the Government’s ‘Ireland 2040” plan.
Unless people register their abhorrence to their political representatives for the manner in which the current and previous Governments have treated Drogheda, then Drogheda will simply get what it deserves - a second class status.
In that regard, your piece from the archives dating back to June 2001 in your edition of March 6th last, reported the then Senator Fergus O’Dowd and his Fine Gael party were opposing the proposed toll locally on the M1. He also mentioned the need for an ‘Eastern bypass of the town or a new bridge to take the port traffic away from the town centre’.
Fergus O’Dowd has built his political career with the support of the people of the town, first as Councillor and then Mayor. In the Oireachtas, at various times, he has held the positions of Senator, TD and Junior Minister. None of these much needed developments have occured in his watch.
Above all, the draft “Ireland 2040” plan proposed by his Government colleagues last year totally ignored Ireland’s largest town, and it was only through the sustained efforts of the Drogheda City Status Group and other concerned groups and individuals that Drogheda was ‘appended’ to Dundalk and Newry in the final plan, which chose to completely ignore the close proximity of the Co Meath suburbs of Laytown-Bettystown-Mornington and the Northern Environs Plan which already gave Drogheda the ‘critical mass’ to be a city.
Anyone concerned with the future prospects and orderly growth of the Greater Drogheda area (including East Meath) for the benefit of current and future generations should choose their political representatives wisely at the next local and general elections.
Yours, Chris Byrne