Are you ready for a fun thread about @countykerry's visionary tactic of fighting Covid-19 with bollards in towns around Kerry?

Or would you rather a thread about @countykerry wasting a ball of money and making life more difficult for everyone.

LOL. Got ya. It's the same thread

At phase 2 of lockdown, @countykerry brought out a draft plan to make Co. Kerry a more "welcoming destination" for phase 3.
How?
By blocking off 50+ street parking spaces to create "safe spaces" for pedestrians to move off the 2.5m wide pavement and keep social distancing

In Listowel our local councillors, @JimmyMoloney, @AoifeThornton and Mike Kennelly raised concerns about this idea. It was brought to the attention of @listowel and traders in the town who also made a range of arguments against this move which I will attempt to list here:

1: The information provided by http://gov.ie  states that "Close contact does not include someone you passed on the street or in a shop. The risk of contact in that instance is very low."
The Council's refused to acknowledge this, only repeating "...but 2 metres"

2: People have been walking on the pavements since phase 1, this move is two phases too late anyway

3a: Making people park further away from their destination increases the distance they have to walk. Inconveniencing them, especially those with mobility issues and increasing the number of people passing each other - apparently what they're trying to avoid!

3b: Parking further away means that a single parent can't leave their children in the car while they pop into the butchers quickly, but have to cart the kids with them - once again, inconvenient and more people on the street

4: Businesses that remained open during lockdown had used these spaces to keep their customers safe - from click & collect services for restaurants to parking outside the pharmacy and nipping in quickly minimising the time spent on the street

5: Businesses still need to limit the number of people allowed on their premises at one time, and will be heavily impacted by adverse weather as customers will be slow to stand out in the rain, whereas they could wait in their car outside the door when parking is available

6: Walking past someone on the existing 2.5m pavement is comparable to walking past someone in the cereal aisle in the supermarket, except you're both outside and you're not both going to reach for the same box of cornflakes

7: Just because there are bollards marking off the area doesn't mean that anyone is actually going to step off the pavement and use them*

*[Spoiler Alert - nobody is using them]

Ok, so these arguments were clear as day to everyone. The council cut it down to 35 spaces and then reduced it further to 11 in Listowel. Great, I guess. I mean it's a lot better than 50 spaces, right?
Sure, but ultimately it's just an exercise in being seen to be doing something

But that doesn't matter. The engineer whose wildest imagination allowed him to dream up bollards as a solution to Covid will get paid, and it's down to the businesses that are trying to reopen to work harder to get customers in and keep them and their staff safe

And just so we're clear, now that they're down, they aren't being used. They look grotty. They don't suit anyone. People have complained about them on @radiokerry, in the @kerryman_ie and @Kerrys_Eye. But nobody seems to be able to hold @countykerry to account

Clearly they received money, and it had to be spent somehow. But they have made running a business in what is already a difficult time infinitely more stressful. We should be doing business with the help of the council, not in spite of it.

So they don't help businesses, they don't help visitors to the town. They actually are worse for the elderly, people with mobility issues and parents with prams who can't jump on and off pavements and can't park near the shop they're going to. So who is it helping?

This thread has been Listowel focused, purely because it's where I live & work, but similar work was carried out in Tralee, Killarney, Kenmare & Dingle, all to make Kerry more welcoming to tourists. Because black rubber bollards are the red carpet of Kerry. Didn't you know?

Normally I'm all for putting on a brave face, for keeping the bright side out, for trying to keep it positive, because god knows it's a lot easier to give out than to get up off your arse and do something.

But @countykerry has driven me to the point where I have an email to @joeliveline sitting in my drafts, which I typed at 4am when I couldn't sleep over all this.
I haven't brought myself to send it yet.
But it's there.
And I won't ever forgive them for that.

Finally, I'm aware I only have 150 followers so this is unlikely to go very far, & there are a lot more important things going on in the world. But the arrogance of @countykerry would drive you insane. This is me spiralling I guess.
Let's finish with a nice picture of Listowel