AS referendum counts go, it appeared to be a bit of a damp squib. But it was the result, two to one in favour of the anti rezoning campaigners out of 927 votes cast and a 55 per cent turnout - came some 30 minutes after polling ended on Thursday night.

There was none of the back slapping bonhomie of your average Irish count, no howls of triumph or rage; merely tight, drawn faces on the one hand, sighs of relief on the other and gracious words of thanks from both sides to the officers.

It was a credit to all sides that five months of bitter conflict had been distilled to this scene of cool civility. What lay beneath the surface however was a different matter.

As the two little groups stood anxiously around the tables, tallying the votes, it was evident the stakes could hardly be higher; in the balance here were personal and political reputations, the transformation of a small country town for good or ill and, not least, enormous amounts of money.

It had been a nasty campaign. Battle hardened veterans say they have never seen the like. On the scale of local eruptions, the Kilcock rezoning row is up there with the water charges. "But the water charges rows weren't nearly as bad," says local Labour TD, Minister of State for Energy and rezoning opponent, Mr Emmet Stagg. "I just don't know how the four councillors took the abuse that was thrown at them at meetings."

This abuse, according to one of the four Clane area councillors (two Fianna Fail, two Fine Gael, all robustly in favour of rezoning), extended beyond public meetings. Fianna Fail representative Liam Doyle says that he once returned to his van to find a note which read: "Dead or Alive." Sometimes, late at night, the family woke to the ring of the telephone and aggressive voices which skipped introductions to ask how much he was being paid by the landowners. In fact, this question and others like it became such common currency that at a public meeting last Monday another of the four beleaguered councillors, Mr Jim Reilly of Fine Gael, felt obliged to deny that any of his colleagues were "in the pockets of landowners".

No one of course, publicly condones these allegations, or activities. Indeed, Mr Doyle is anxious to emphasise that he knows "most" of his opponents to be "decent, honourable people".

The upshot of this week's activities is that politicians all over the State have suddenly tuned in to events in this tiny town in north Kildare. What happens here will lay a marker for the nature of future relationships between the electorate and its local representatives.

THE issue seems simple. The last Kilcock development plan had zoned 18 acres of additional land for residential development. The amended version, however - energetically promoted by the four area councillors - proposes to increase this to more than 200 acres assembled from a number of landowners. As well as that, 108 acres are proposed for industry and a single 375 acre parcel of agricultural land, the Courtown Estate, owned by solicitor Brendan O'Mahoney, is proposed for rezoning as a private leisure/amenity development.

The county planner, Mr Philip Jones, has said that the extra 200 acres would be enough to cater for an additional 4,000 people - in effect more than trebling the population of the town. To the councillors, the vast majority of the traders, about a third of the residents and - presumably - all of the landowners, this clearly represents progress.

After all, says Mr Doyle, the population has grown by only 287 in the past five years. The anti amendment activists in the shape of Concerned Residents of the Kilcock Area and the North Kildare Alliance for Better Planning reply that there is already provision for an extra 3,200 residents without any amendment.

But in spite of the simple question posed to the voters in Thursday's poll - were they in favour of the amended draft development plan for Kilcock? - the battle lines are by no means clear. No one, for example, denies the need for renewal and development. All around are signs of stagnation and dereliction. Mr Doyle recalls that a 1993 Maynooth University study showed some areas of north Kildare to be as economically deprived as parts of the west of Ireland.

"Kilcock is dead," says one local businessman who voted for the rezoning amendment. "There is no new business here: Any young person who has tried to open anything around the town has seen it die. A flower shop closed only a few weeks ago. The truth is that most people want development in Kilcock; the majority don't want it so quickly and they don't want so much of it. But what they're saying is that they want everything in position - like sewerage, water, schools - before any rezoning is done. I don't agree; I think it's like catching fish - to catch fish, you have to have the water first. And no matter what they, say, all these houses are not going to happen suddenly..."

And there's the nub. No one knows for sure what will happen, or its manner and pace of development. There are already seven prefabricated classrooms in Kilcock; water pressure is already low, roads already under strain.

What are the residents to do? They already know that the county planners oppose many of the rezoning proposals. The fundamental issue is one of trust. Who can they trust? Should they surrender to the urgings of the councillors and welcome the great influx of new residents, meanwhile praying that they arrive at a sufficiently leisurely pace to allow the local authorities to keep up with the enormous demands on the infrastructures?

Or should they simply dig their heels in and insist on getting the infrastructures - and jobs, say some - in place before huge sums of money begin to change hands, development begins, and it's too late to have a say?

The question as to who they should trust implies they have an influence in the outcome. But they have learned from the experience of other towns and communities in north Kildare that this is not necessarily so. After a similar row about rezoning in Leixlip, the four Clane area councillors referred to above and nine of their colleagues ignored the Leixlip Town Commission, the Leixlip Chamber of Commerce and more than 3,600 written submissions to push ahead with the rezoning plan.

CAMPAIGNERS say they have observed a "quiet coalition" between Fianna Fail and Fine Gael in these matters; between them these parties have a majority of five over all others.

Hence the push for "people power" and the genesis of the North Kildare Alliance for Better Planning, which a few weeks ago welcomed Kill, to make it a seven town spearhead.

The alliance perceives a serious deficit in local democracy, in so far as all county councillors know their seats are safe until 1999. By then, they will have had eight years in power.

Meanwhile, post referendum, Kilcock remains in a state of ferment. The best of intentions on polling night - to start the healing process, etc - seem to have collapsed in a welter of belated criticism about the fairness or otherwise of the poll, the wording on the voting paper, the behaviour of supposedly neutral interests or the alleged involvement of party "machines". Mr Doyle is merely happy that the size of the vote in favour reflected that "we, the councillors, were not the big, bad guys we were being painted to be".

But will the clear majority against the amendment influence him at all? Well, first of all he would like the press and cameras left outside (an image that infuriates his opponents who already have visions of smoke filled rooms and quiet deals).

Then, he says: "I will sit down and talk and listen to them and express my view ... " On the other side, legal options are being studied, and the Minister for the Environment's (unexercised) powers to rescind rezoning decisions and "vary" the county plan are increasingly up for mention. Brendan Howlin may soon be getting the taste of "people power" too.