Wexford council criticised for €150k spend on consultancy fees – ‘We don’t need another consultant, we’ve already done all this’
Wexford PeopleWexford County Council (WCC) is to spend up to €150,000 on consultancy fees for a project which, according to a former mayor, has already been explored in great detail. The project will look at the possible pedestriaisation of the Cornmarket in Wexford town and increasing “economic and cultural vitality” in the surrounding areas, including outside the Wexford Arts Centre and the library.
However, Labour councillors Vicky Barron and Biddy Walsh have questioned the wisdom of paying consultants to carry out work which they say was done last year.
“I know consultants need a lot of money but €150,000 is exorbitant for just drawings and plans,” noted Cllr Barron at the April meeting of the Wexford Borough District.
“We have already done a walking audit of that whole area,” added Cllr Walsh. “We had historians and heritage officers looking at it, and a consultant brought us all into White’s Hotel and sat us around a table for a whole afternoon. We went through all this. So we don’t need to employ another consultant, we’ve already done all this.
“We should not be employing someone to do it again. I was mayor at the time and as part of the town centre first plan this already exists in a document somewhere.”
The councillors were reacting to plans presented by senior executive architect Emma Hickey who said the €150,000 was part of the Town and Cities Investment Fund and will look at the underuse of public spaces in the middle of the town. She defended the expense involved in the project.
"The fees are in alignment wit a project of this size. This funding will bring us to the planning stage and the next phase will be the capital cost of the works.”
Expanding on the nature of the project and what it may entail she said the focus was on recapturing the magic of the Fleadhs two visits to Wexford town.
“The Bullring is already fabulous but it’s whether we can enhance it further and encourage further use of those spaces and increase economic and cultural vitality in the area,” she said. “We will be looking at enhancing the historic character of these areas with street furniture. The Fleadh showed how vibrant those spaces can be when used to their full potential.”
Any suggestion that the Bullring may be tampered with had Cllr Tom Forde warning of repurcussions from the local community.
“People are very protective of the Bullring, and rightly so,” he said. “But we have to decide whether the Cornmarket needs to be pedestrianised. This always causes a lot of debate, people get quite angry about it; personally I’d be against it.”