The Tramore Town Commissioners had a special anniversary last week, marking the 60th year of its foundation.
The town has had its share of difficult periods, with unemployment blighting the 50s and early 60s.
The loss of the rail link to Waterford around that time prompted a delegation to visit Dublin including the former editor of the Munster Express in an attempt to save the line, only for their to be refused a meeting with the Minister responsible.
The decades since have had highs and lows, and Tramore Town Commissioners has provided the forum for debate on these matters, well covered in this newspaper.
Many families in the town put great voluntary effort into promoting the resort and its interests. However, voluntarism is now on the decrease, due to peoples’ busier lives.
The environment, the dump and state of the beach have proven big issues in the past that were well covered in these columns; sometimes the criticism was harsh, but such is the nature of free debate and long may it continue.
Tramore is now well positioned for the future, with more housing and retail outlets being either built or completed.
The latter may provide a decent sized rate base for Tramore to be promoted to Urban District Council status. The lack of rate base has proven a problem in the past when this issue has been raided, but given the expansion in retail, this inhibiting factor could be sorted in future years.
This point was raised notably by Fianna Fáil’s Dan Cowman, currently the current longest serving commissioner.
Tramore now has excellent council offices and a fine town clerk in Mr. John O’Sullivan, who was praised widely for his organisation of the 60th anniversary event.
A change to UDC status such as what Dungarvan enjoys should not prove too difficult to achieve in the years ahead once the retail base has grown.
In the meantime, we congratulate them on their work to date in improving Tramore and making it a more desirable place to live and work.