March 2025
Hi, there! — Welcome to the thirty-sixth edition of my monthly newsletter to keep you up to date on my work for Cork City North East.
This month, we have motions on shared electric bikes in city suburbs, community facilities in the Glen River Park, ferry services from the Port of Cork, and public composting locations — as well as questions on the retrofitting of homes and the cleaning of street gullies.
I’ve also included updates on the proposed route for the Northern Distributor Road, a solar farm at the Black Ash P&R, as well as Cork’s own Local Green Deals.
As ever, if there’s anything you want to get in touch about — even if it’s just to let me know your thoughts on this newsletter — feel welcome to email me any time at email@oliver.ie.
And please remember to share this newsletter with your friends and neighbours in the ward.
Many thanks!
Oliver
p.s. You can use this link to easily read and share all my monthly newsletters ... oliver.ie/newsletter
Motions and notions
Each councillor can submit up to four motions each month to Cork City Council and ask two formal questions of the Chief Executive. One of these questions is asked at the Local Area Committee and must be about local operational matters.
Before the deadline each month, I meet with my local group, the Cork City North Greens, and we agree motions and questions for the month ahead. We call this our “motions and notions” meeting :-)
If you have ideas or suggestions for a motion, or have a question you want asked, just let me know!
Or join the Cork City North Greens ... my.greenparty.ie
Questions
“To ask the Chief Executive for Cork City Council’s policy with regards to the planning permission required (or otherwise) for the retrofitting of external wall insulation to existing buildings?”
I will also ask the following question at the next meeting of the North East ward Local Area Committee:
“To ask the Chief Executive for a list of streets in the North East ward; the dates the gullies on these streets were cleaned by the planned gully maintenance programme in 2024; and the work programme conducted so far and planned for 2025.”
Motions
“That Cork City Council will report on progress of the city’s Shared Micro-Mobility Strategy; in particular progress towards tendering for a shared electric bicycle scheme outside of the city centre.”
“That Cork City Council will install a sheltered structure to provide a communal focus and host small-scale community gatherings in the Glen River Park.”
“That Cork City Council will engage with the Port of Cork and other stakeholders to improve passenger ferry services to the UK, France and Spain from Cork; including improving the frequency and accessibility of passenger travel from the city via the Port of Cork.”
“That Cork City Council will locate composting centres in accessible locations to accept food waste and other easily biodegradable items; or support a social enterprise to collect waste in this way for sale or redistribution as compost.”
Contributions
At March’s meeting of Cork City Council, I made spoken contributions on:
Urban regeneration in Shandon, public transport priority, disabled parking bays, AI in the public sector, and more.
You can now watch back my contributions in the chamber on YouTube (and share these with the link oliver.ie/videos).
What’s happening?
Northern Distributor Road
This month, Cork City Council published the proposed route for the Northern Distributor Road. This road will link areas across the northside of the city, without the need to travel through the city centre.
The Northern Distributor Road is proposed to be set closer to the city than the more frequently talked about motorway-like North Ring Road. Its purpose will be to allow local city-based traffic to move east-west across the northside of the city. The route will travel from Glanmire to Blackpool, past Hollyhill and connect to the Straight Road leading to Ballincollig.
This is a critical road for the city and the northside in particular. It will be the first time that private traffic and public transport will be able to travel east-west across the northside without having to pass through the city centre or navigate local bye-roads. That will relieve the city centre, and communities near it, of through-traffic as well as enabling housing developments along the new route.
Now that the route is published it puts a clearer picture on what the road will actually look like, including the challenges. There are particular amenity areas that its proposed to pass through for example. These include the wooded area near Vienna Woods in Glanmire and across the Glenamought River Valley near Murphy’s Rock.
Meeting the competing demands on areas like these, for amenity and for transport, will be a balancing act that takes imagination. However, if that can be gotten right through community engagement, it has the potential to add further to the project.
Solar farm at the Black Ash
A public consultation is open on improvements to the Black Ash Park & Ride. This will be to accommodate new bus services with the planned expanded city bus network.
The new services planned for the facility is something I want to explore in more detail. In particular, new routes from the Park and Ride to the train station that might relieve parking pressure there. The current parking at Kent Station is beyond breakpoint and people arriving by car to travel by train to, say, Dublin for a work meeting can easily find themselves caught out.
An ideal scenario is that someone will be able to park at the Black Ash and get a shuttle bus to Kent Station for onward journey. That’s a different scenario to what the facility is used for now. It could mean more longer-term parking, which is something that Cork City Council as the operator would have to work out.
I’m also proposing that, alongside this, the Black Ash be used to generate electricity for the city using a solar farm. Officials agree that this is “hopeful” and, at a discussion at committee level, the proposal had broad support.
I think it’s a natural progression that builds on the electricity generation at Tramore Valley Park as the gas produced by the old landfill tapers off. Across the road, we have a large open south-facing site suitable for a solar farm. At face-value, it could be plugged in to the equipment we already have at Tramore Valley Park and continue that electricity generation.
It checks the boxes as showing both leadership as a city on renewables and being ‘real’ in the sense of being a financial net benefit to the city. That’s the kind of project that shows our credentials as an EU Mission City to be climate neutral. It being connected with public transport is a nice overlapping of different dimensions of climate action too.
Local Green Deals
This month, Cork City Council won a European award for having the most high-quality Local Green Deals. These deals are agreements between the council and local businesses and organizations as part of the EU’s Intelligent Cities Challenge.
In Cork, we’ve made 12 Local Green Deals with a mix of private companies, community groups, and voluntary organizations. These cover everything from building retrofits and rooftop solar panels to better waste management and community education programs.
The award was announced at a big meeting in Brussels with other cities in the initiative. While there, I joined a forum with city mayors and business leaders. I also spoke on a panel, sharing Cork’s experience in making these deals happen.
I focused on the key role cities play in driving the green and digital transitions by bringing businesses, communities and local government together. Local Green Deals, in particular, can help make sustainability and innovation a core part of Cork’s economy and daily life.
Partnerships with companies like Boston Scientific and University College Cork show how big organizations can lead by example. But we’ve also made sure to include grassroots projects, like the Toy Library, which helps families swap pre-loved toys and supports the circular economy.
Our approach is about the whole city working together — businesses of all sizes, research institutions, and even sports clubs — so that everyone has a role in building a greener future. I hope Cork’s example can inspire other cities across Europe to do the same.
In the news…
Uisce Éireann’s refusal to attend public meeting on city’s dirty water problem ‘beyond insulting’
Northside councillor, Oliver Moran, said the city had housing projects that were dependent upon Uisce Éireann providing services.
Irish Examiner, Thursday, 13 March
Plan for new bus lane on Cork’s Anglesea Street approved despite loss of 14 parking spaces
Green Party councillor Oliver Moran warned more decisions like this are required across the city over the coming months to deliver a reliable bus service for the city.
Irish Examiner, Wednesday, 12 March
Cork Green councillor recounts journey from hell trying to reach Euro summit on ‘sustainable’ transport
Bomb scare on Brussels–Paris rail track eventually forced Oliver Moran to return home from summit by air.
Irish Independent, Friday, 7 March
Keep in touch
Thanks for reading! Please feel welcome to share this newsletter and invite other people you know to subscribe — and, if you can, please consider making a donation to my political activities in the ward.
You can also keep up to date with my activities on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Mastodon and TikTok. And don’t forget, you can email me any time at email@oliver.ie.
Have a great month!
