Input sought for vision of Ennis

THE first steps towards developing a vision for the future of Ennis are set to take place this week.
The people of the town are being encouraged to take part in what has been dubbed a ‘community visioning’, where they will be able to directly contribute to a strategy for how the town will develop socially and economically over the next decade.
Local people can make their ideas heard at a number of world cafés and public-space events to take place next week and also online and on twitter.
Ennis Town Council recently sanctioned a research team from the University of Limerick’s Practicum programme to carry out community research asking what the people of Ennis would like their town to look like by 2020. The project is supported by the Clare Active Citizenship Network.
The world cafés will take place on Thursday, March 31 at 7pm in the offices of Ennis Town Council, Drumbiggle; Friday, April 1 at 10.30am in the same location and on Saturday, April 2 at 11am in the Temple Gate Hotel. 
Dr Chris McInerney of the Politics and Public Administration Department in UL, also a native of Ennis, explained, “This will be a moving away from the traditional style of public consultations. The world café method is a means of getting people’s opinions and views in a very constructive way and a way that doesn’t allow any one person to dominate. Everyone who participates will have a say. Also, we are recognising that not everyone goes to public meetings, which is why we are looking to going out to shopping centres in the town on the Thursday and Saturday and meet people. And of course, we have the facebook page and twitter so people who want to have a say will have plenty of opportunities,” Dr McInerney said.
People will be encouraged to talk about how the town will develop in a variety of ways including the future of business, job creation, tourism, education and recreation. “These events are designed to be enjoyable. It’s about creating spaces where people feel welcome to contribute and we’re fairly sure it won’t be like meetings people would have been to before. We want to create a hospitable place, where people can feel their views are taken on board. Even if you don’t want to speak, you can write your ideas down and they will be collated by the researchers,” he said.
Dr McInerney added, “One of the benefits of the world cafés is it tends to unleash great creativity. Having done this process before, the one thing that always surprises people is the quality of the ideas and the realism of ideas that come out. The challenges facing the whole country at this point are significant, so we need to begin to look at things from all sorts of different ways. That is one of the reasons we are not just having meetings. There are some people who don’t go to meetings and their opinions might not always be heard, so we’re trying to spread the net as far as we can,” he said.
Town clerk Eddie Power added, “These aren’t going to be lectures and people won’t be spoken to. This is about bringing people together so we can hear their views on the future of the town, not about trying to sell any particular set of ideas. It’s an open forum and one where people will consider key questions and no one group will dominate. The population of Ennis is likely to grow in the future and this is about having a vision of how the town will look in terms of Ennis as a place to live, to invest in, to work in and to visit,” Mr Power said.
According to Mr Power, Ennis Town Council are delighted to be working with the University of Limerick on this project, which is a departure from the usual process of developing a plan for the town.
“This is a non-statutory process, we are not obliged to do it but we see this as an opportunity for community involvement. It’s about giving people a shared responsibility and an opportunity to determine what direction we want to go and where we want to get. It’s different from the preparation of the statutory Ennis Development Plan, which is about setting standards for land zoning. This strategy is much broader than that,” he said.
“Ennis has been designated a sub-regional growth centre in the National Spatial Strategy. Ennis has a critical role in terms of the economic development of the region and it is important for us to look forward. The strategy is about setting the direction for the town. The development of this strategy will involve building on the town’s strengths, on the competitive advantage we have due to our strategic location between Galway and Limerick and our accessibility by rail and road and our proximity to an international airport. These are critical factors that have a key part to play in the future of the town.
“We hear a lot about the downturn in business but the strategy is aimed at capitalising on opportunities and matching the strategy with the resources that are available and not just financial resources but the capacity for the community to work together, for the business, public and voluntary sectors to come together with a common purpose,” Mr Power added.
The findings of the public consultation process are set to be presented to Ennis Town Council in June, with a view to formulating the strategy by the end of this year.
Once the strategy is complete, the local authority will put in place an implementation plan of how the strategy can be realised.
According to Dr McInerney, the ideas included in the strategy can be delivered on in the future, if there is a will from politicians, the local authority and the local community.
“There is a commitment there to move onto an implementation plan by the town council and the sessions we have planned are about harnessing the support of the community. There are certainly different parts of the country where even with reduced finances, with structures and processes and cooperation a lot of things can be achieved,” he said.
While Mr Power added, “In devising a strategy, you are looking at making choices within available resources. We would expect the economic situation to improve over time and in devising this strategy, we are factoring in that the town will be ready to take advantage of the changing economic circumstances when that happens.”
Further information on the research is www.ennistowncouncil.ie, www.facebook.com/ennishub, or www.twitter.com/ennisppp. The facebook and twitter account will be online from March 31.