PEOPLE POWER AT MEETING

Written by RARE - Rostrevor Action Respecting the Environment / Monday 19th September 2023

A pack room at the Skylite room in Warrenpoint for the public meeting

It was a night to warm the heart and provoke much thought as people-power packed the Skylite Room in Warrenpoint to register their lack of confidence in the controversial operations of Re-Gen Waste Ltd and a Warrenpoint Harbour "Authority" Board (WHA) carrying highly paid but silent DUP, Sinn Fein and SDLP Councillor representation.

Within easy walking distance of two MLA’s offices and uneasily close to the whiff of the Warrenpoint Port based WHA/Re-Gen stink which generated the meeting, the voices of the people asked the questions and considered the multiple strategies suggested to rid the people of South Down and North Louth of the smell, noise, nuisance and serious health risk of a waste operation which now appears to be out of control.

As BBC News cameras watched and community video operators recorded every word and moment for posterity, elected representatives Patrick Brown MLA, Mark Gibbons Independent and Independent Councillor Jarlath Tinnelly listened and made constructive suggestions on a way forward, occasionally borrowing passages from recent WHA and ReGen statements to add comic relief to an otherwise serious discussion.

Community voices were at the centre of this meeting and we were treated to an intriguing insight from the elected representatives present on the prospects of a positive motion that was proposed from the floor by Jim Boylan - the gist of it being that the Environmental Health Department should issue a report to the Council on what action they are taking with the NI Environment Agency in order to remedy the stink/flies problem and reassure the public that the problem would not arise again

We were then left to consider the obstacles that could face such a motion in a Council chamber inhabited by the three parties “onboard” the WHA - DUP, SF and SDLP. All three parties were notably absent from last night’s meeting, apparently totally silenced by the grip of WHA/Re-Gen payment and/or persuasion. Unless they show their hand with an intention of changing their ways, those three parties seem unlikely - for now anyway - to bite the hand that feeds them. While that situation remains, the sombre reality could be that they are therefore likely to remain part of the problem rather than part of the solution.

The good news is that the giant of people-power is awake, local and national media is alert and two independent councillors and an MLA have shown the courage and integrity to weigh in with a community that is determined to find solutions by taking whatever action is required, not only to stop the stink but also to deal with any further manifestations of corporate plans to turn Warrenpoint into a dump.

As lively conversations continued out onto the streets last night, social media posts drifting in revealed that a major political party had simultaneously held a meeting on what appears to have been, for them, a priority issue - to make plans for Halloween celebrations. That irony was not lost on all who had watched drone footage earlier in the evening on the big screen of the Skylite Room showing the spooky lighting of Re-Gen’s machines at work, reshuffling waste mountains in almost complete darkness, sometimes accompanied by the tortuous shrieks of scraping metal echoing across to the shores of Omeath - sounds described so vividly at the meeting by a North Louth resident who had made the journey to show solidarity with the people in Warrenpoint. Many may feel that while those unwelcome sounds, lighting effects and smells linger, the plans for Halloween celebrations could have taken second place to the plans needed for improving life in the real world today, on either side of Carlingford Lough and far beyond.