Town fights back after jobs body blow by Dairygold
MITCHELSTOWN is fighting back from the Dairygold Co-op jobs crisis and planning for a brighter future.
Some 250 of the 500 redundancies implemented by the dairy giant before Christmas affected families in the area.
There are growing fears that more redundancies are planned as the co-op moves to restructure dairy processing.
An alliance of the Business Association, Community Council and Leisure Project Group has identified key priorities that need to be addressed to safeguard the area’s socio-economic development.
Mitchelstown has an urban population of 4,618, which increases to almost 16,000 when its hinterland, covering parts of counties Cork, Limerick and Tipperary, is added.
The alliance in a joint submission to Tánaiste Mary Harney, said that, historically, Dairygold ensured that Mitchelstown had a strong employment base. “We are all too aware that this led to complacency on our part and on the part of national and local agencies. The result was a collective lack of initiative and concern about the town’s long-term economic future.
“Consequently, the dominance of the dairy industry in Mitchelstown has masked the potential of other emerging sectors in the economy,” said a spokesperson for the alliance.
The alliance said there is no alternative industry of any significance to counteract or absorb the recent job losses and that a further 500 redundancies are expected in Dairygold.
Mitchelstown Business Association has spearheaded a campaign to highlight actions needed to remedy the situation.
A 22,000 sq ft advance factory has been built and is ready for a client. Cahir Hill Industrial Park, owned by Cork County Council, has sites available for purchase.
“We urgently need active promotion of Mitchelstown by IDA Ireland, Enterprise Ireland and Cork North Enterprise Board as a location for inward investment. Through the work of the Leisure Project Group, Tesco Ireland opened a new store in Mitchelstown last January in what is seen as the start of a transformation required in the retail sector,” it said.
The town is earmarked for a 200-job Bus Éireann decentralised office. A community-owned site has been offered to the company. It is one of nine sites identified for such purposes.
Promised grant aid for the leisure complex to provide one of the vital elements needed to attract investment into the town is also being sought.
Full planning permission has been obtained for the facility, incorporating a 20-metre swimming pool, fitness suite, outdoor all-weather pitches, training area, and ancillary facilities. In excess of €2.3 million has already been raised by the local community for the development of this complex. Grant aid of €3.8 million is required.
Also proposed is an enhancement programme to transform the image of Mitchelstown, one of the country’s best-planned towns with what is regarded as the finest range of Georgian buildings (over 50) in any small town.
The Heritage Society, together with the trustees and State agencies, undertook a €2.1 million restoration of Kingston College in 1999-2003. And the Community Council has proposals to restore a 6.1 acre 18th century man-made Demesne Lake as a waterside amenity.
Mitchelstown relief road, which will be completed in 2006, will remove 10,000 of the 13,000 vehicles that daily pass through the town, presenting an opportunity for significant infrastructural change within the town environment.
Leading voluntary groups, with Ballyhoura Development Ltd, Cork County Council and State agencies, have come together to formulate a 10-year socio-economic plan.
A project by the Community Council to plant 100,000 daffodils on approach roads is 50% completed, as are proposals to plant 250 trees in strategic urban locations.
The alliance also said a full-time professional needs to be appointed to deal with day-to-day management issues and forward planning for the town.
Bill Power, Tony Lewis and Ben Lynch, the respective chairmen of the Community Council, Business Association and Leisure Project outlined their vision for Mitchelstown at a public meeting. The Tanáiste has also with a deputation from the community. Meanwhile, Mallow, which is also due to get 200 jobs in a Fáilte Éireann decentralised office, is anxiously awaiting the next phase of Dairygold’s rationalisation.
Town council chairman David Willis said everybody agreed Dairygold has to take serious decisions in order to survive in a market place that is no longer local but global.
However, he had been inundated with complaints from workers in the co-op that they had been shabbily treated. As a gesture of solidarity with them he had joined their picket on the occasion of SIPTU’s one-day strike.
Mr Willis said he also accepted that the co-op’s milk suppliers are going through difficult times in a rapidly changing environment on the land. Many of them now also need an off-farm job to keep the show on the road.
Dairygold is meanwhile reviewing the development potential of its 17-acre town centre site in Mallow to determine how best it should be developed, potentially to include retail, hotel, office and amenity content.
