1) Following on from @LimerickCouncil disastrous handling of the #Covid_19 mobility for #Limerick, I sought details of the 457 submissions under the #FOIA to better understand why they reversed the temporary pedestrianisation of 6 key streets. The front page of the Leader shows
2) that this request was rejected. I think it's a spurious rejection based on 'workload' which the 2014 Act allows for, i'd happily pay the fee. In fact, in 2018 we received the O'Connell St submissions. Something just add up - I will be appealing this week #weneedspace
3) It is clear that public consultation is thoroughly broken in #Limerick and we, the citizens, are the victims. Let's look at the IPA guide to public engagement from March 2020

https://www.ipa.ie/_fileUpload/Documents/LocalGov_EngagingandEmpoweringLocalComm.pdf

The 4 facets to good engagement are laid out clearly:
4) Inform,
Consult,
Collaborate,
Empower.

We hit 2 of these 4. People are rightly annoyed.

The Wheel have an excellent document here called 'Two Way Street' - well worth the read.

https://www.wheel.ie/sites/default/files/media/file-uploads/2018-08/Two-Way%20Street.pdf
5) I received the results of a second #FOIA that related to our Councillors engagement with the executive. This showed me precisely the 'report' that was given to the elected members, it is attached here.

457 submissions in 5 vague/bland bullet points.
5) To be clear, it appears that no Councillor sought to see our submissions prior to voting. I find that really disheartening.

A number of Councillors engaged with officials, some asked really pertinent questions about decision making whilst others forwarded on emails from
6) Concerned traders. This attachment, I found interesting. The names have been redacted, but are these the '100 Traders' - it doesn't look like 100 to me.

As I told @Nick468official , This is their livelihood and they are right to worry - but we need to try new things
8) By trying something new, I absolutely do not mean the farce of installing giant cutlery, marauding fish people and free parking once a week.

Can this never happen again?
9) I'll leave it there for now, but with a message. We want a thriving City Centre, with traders selling us nice things but we also want space.

@Nick468official gets a hard time sometimes doing his job, so this weekend pick up a copy of @Limerick_Leader for a bit of balance
You can follow @kieransopinion.
Tip: mention @twtextapp on a Twitter thread with the keyword “unroll” to get a link to it.

Latest Threads Unrolled: