PEOPLE POWER: REZONING

IF 1996 was the year when people-power showed its muscle, then the Kilcock rezoning referendum has to be its best example.

The plain people of the Kildare town took on their local representatives, most of the town's traders, powerful vested interests, plus the combined strength of the two main political parties, and stood the political world on its head with their own brand of local democracy.

Propelled by fear, frustration and white-hot anger when local councillors seemed irrevocably bent on adopting amendments to the development plan - amendments capable of trebling the population at a stroke with no guarantee of early improvements in the shaky infrastructure - the worm turned.

Efficiently and intelligently, local interest groups, spearheaded by the North Kildare Alliance for Better Planning, organised a September referendum in the town. The campaign was bitter - "up there with the water charges" - said Energy Minister and rezoning opponent Mr Emmett Stagg, but the anti-amendment group finally swept to victory with a two-to-one vote against the rezoning proposals.

Within two weeks, the victory gained substance when Environment Minister Brendan Howlin requested the county council to suspend making "ill-considered" decisions on rezoning until it first prepared a development plan for the whole county.

Kilcock has laid down a marker. Councillors, who by the next local elections circa 1999, will have enjoyed eight years of power, have been put on notice - power to the people isn't just a slogan.