Western Alliance to run candidates in election

THE Western Alliance Party and its founder William A. Thomas, promoter for City for the West is the latest party to announce that it will be running a candidate in the forthcoming general election.

Mr. Thomas this week told the Champion that he will be running in one constituency in the West of Ireland, but will not announce which constituency until the election is called. He also said that as many candidates as possible will run on behalf of the party in May.

By Pauline Scott

Mr. Thomas has forwarded computer designed images of what the financial district in the new City of the West should look like. "Personally I am going to have more green areas", said Mr. Thomas, commenting on the plans. "The buildings are very modern, but I want them to blend in.

Asked how the project is progressing, Mr. Thomas said that it is going well and he currently has men researching in Southern Europe and Italy. He added that the chief architect is John Cully, who is based in Dublin, but who is currently out of the country.

Mr. Thomas expressed fears that the national draft spatial strategy is going to exclude development in the West for over 30 years. He alleged that the plan was due out in December, but was put on hold by Ministers from the West until after the election.

The developer said that he is currently working on generating a website for the new City for the West which will allow surfers to take a cyber drive down through the streets and view the plans of the new area. Mr. Thomas added that if the city is built it will provide full employment in the West of Ireland for the next l00 years and will help stem the current outflow of 300,000 people from the West of Ireland who travel East to work every Sunday evening. "We have the largest population shift in the world every five days."

Citing reasons why such a city should be created, Mr. Thomas said that a recent study carried out by Dr. Mary Crehan and published in the Irish Examiner showed that the Irish coastline from South Dublin to North County Down has been contaminated by radioactive cobalt, causing anaemia, vomiting, diarrhoea and excessive tiredness in the population - problems which are caused directly by the Sellafield nuclear plant in England. Mr. Thomas also pointed out that it has been predicted that Dublin's population will grow by 1.2 million in the next ten years, putting excessive pressure on an already choked infrastructure.

Mr. Thomas called for people to vote "for people who will deliver a quality of life. "This is not the republic of Dublin", said Mr. Thomas who confirmed that he will be running in the general election, but added that the Western Alliance Party will be "keeping their powder dry" until a general election is called.