May 2024
Hi, there! — Welcome to the twenty-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 improving pedestrian links in Glanmire, the public realm of Barrackton, identifying the location for a community centre in Ballyvolane, and supporting lifelong learning — as well as questions on the Northern Distributor Road and walking/cycling routes between Mayfield and Blackpool.
I’ve also included updates on reasons to #KeepGoingGreen in the local and European elections, new bus shelters and routes in the ward, and the on-going problems with discoloured water affecting households.
If ever there’s anything you want to get in touch about, or to give your thoughts and feedback on this newsletter, please feel welcome to email me any time at oliver.moran@greenparty.ie.
Please also 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
Every month, each councillor can submit up to four motions 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 the current status of identifying a route for the Northern Distributor Road; when she expects public consultation on the emerging preferred route to be held; and if a route involving Silversprings and Mayfield is still being considered or if another route is emerging as preferred?”
I will also ask the following question at the next meeting of the Local Area Committee on Monday, 27 May:
“To ask the Chief Executive for the current status of identifying a route for the Mayfield to Glen Walking and Cycling Scheme; if a route involving upgrade of the Tarry Path is still being considered; if a cycling route through the Glen River Park is still being considered or if another cycling route has been identified; and if improvements to the overgrown pedestrian walkway between the North Ring Road and Spring Lane are still being considered?”
Motions
“That Cork City Council will provide pedestrian infrastructure along the R615 in Glanmire between Barnavara Hill and Springmount Woods (as an important walking route to St Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church from the Barnavara Hill area).”
“That Cork City Council will make improvements to the public realm of the Barrackton area, including to increase the attractiveness of the location for visitors to the Collin’s Barracks Museum; that this will include the installation of dog fouling/litter bins and other additions to the public realm; that an appropriate mural will be considered for a location in Barracktown; and that a fingerpost sign outlining the location of Collins’ Barracks Museum will be placed at Bell’s Field (previously included in the Coburg Street and Saint Patrick’s Hill Area Action Plan).”
“That Cork City Council will identify a location and source of funding to provide a community centre in Ballyvolane.”
“That Cork City Council will report on opportunities to support and encourage lifelong and adult learning services in Glanmire, including venues and potential partners; and that this will be considered alongside strategic planning for Glanmire and requirements for a multi-functional community centre for the area.”
What’s happening?
Make sure to #KeepGoingGreen
Local and European elections will take place on Friday, 7 June. Every resident of the city, regardless of nationality, is entitled to vote in elections to Cork City Council and every European citizen has the right to vote in elections to the European Parliament.
Registering to vote has never been easier, thanks to my Green Party colleague, Malcolm Noonan. You have until Monday, 20 May to register to vote. This can be done online at checktheregister.ie using only your PPS number and the eircode of where you live.
Over the past five years, the Green Party has made an enormous contribution to Cork City Council.
1,300 new homes are being built every year by Cork City Council, including cost rental and affordable housing, Traveller-specific accommodation and a plan finally for Spring Lane and Ellis’ Yard.
We’ve secured the designation of Murphy’s Rock for the Glenamought River Valley Park and protection of the Glen River from where it rises in Mayfield to where it enters the culverts of Blackpool. Community gardens are flourishing and a new park is in the offing at Tinker’s Cross.
We’ve worked with communities to reach consensus on BusConnects. This month a cycle route connecting Cork city centre to Glanmire and Little Island will be published — and contracts will be announced for suburban rail investment, including new stations at Blackpool, Dunkettle and Blarney.
Cork’s first trees strategy is agreed, with a focus on the right tree in the right place at the right time — and 4,000 trees are now being planted every year in the city. No more glyphosate weed killer is being used by Cork City Council, either in parks or on public roads.
Street performance bye-laws are passed, involving artists in shaping the rules and supporting younger artists by waiving fees for under 25s and unaccompanied artists from 16 years old.
The city has more pedestrianised streets, outdoor dining, a Night Mayor, and a specific nighttime economy designation for food and culture. MacCurtain Street has been reborn as a destination to go to with a whole new public realm.
Cork is an EU Mission City to be Climate Neutral by 2030. Local community projects in the city are the first to be awarded the Community Climate Action Fund. The city’s EV charging strategy is published and the city’s Climate Action Plan is agreed.
These are some of the reasons to #KeepGoingGreen on Friday, 7 June — but before you can do that, you need to make sure to register to vote by going to checktheregister.ie before Monday, 20 May.
New bus shelters and routes
The first practical signs of improvements to come along with BusConnects Cork are starting to show in the ward.
These include new bus shelters being installed in the Ballyvolane and Dublin Hill area. Tenders are also being assessed for a new €10m depot in Tivoli to hold 150 new buses for the expanded network.
This month, I met with residents in Glanmire, Ballyvolane and the Glen to go through new routes planned to begin next year. I also distributed letters to residents in Barrackton and Murmont.
Among these are significant changes to the originally published routes for Ballyvolane, Colmcille Avenue, Banduff Road and areas currently served by the 209. These were provided to councillors as part of revisions following significant feedback from residents.
In Ballyvolane, the 207 is planned to be retired completely and replaced with a series of new services every 30 minutes:
Route 10: Ballyvolane Shopping Centre, Ballyhooly Road, Kinvara, Ballincollie Road, Glenheights Road and to CUH via the N20, city centre and Glasheen Road.
Route 21: Ballyvolane Shopping Centre, Glenheights Road, Ballincollie Road, Kinvara, Dublin Hill and to the train station via Blackpool and the city centre.
Route 23: Blackpool Shopping Centre, Glen Avenue, Dillon’s Cross and to Black Ash via the city centre, St. Fin Barre’s Cathedral and Ballyphehane.
Following the public meeting in Glanmire, I’ve also written to the National Transport Authority looking to accelerate public transport priority measures in the ward among other issues.
Discoloured water
This month, I’ve continued to engage Uisce Éireann on the problem of discoloured water. This included a sit-down meeting with the Water Quality Taskforce that was set up specifically to address the problem.
One thing I wanted to see evidence of was that the taskforce is in place and is active. From the minutes of weekly team meetings and correspondences with regulators they shared with me, I’m confident that’s the case.
However, there’s still no end in sight, which is ultimately what people want, but I have confidence now at least that the team is working through the problem methodically. They also confirmed that national resources are being reallocated to Cork to fix the problem.
Nighttime flushing of water mains is taking place in the Murmont and Gardiner’s Hill area to clear the sediment caused by iron and manganese. Water mains replacement is being planned for Sydney Place and Dublin Hill. These are being prioritised ahead of schemes in other parts of the country.
The team are reliant on households providing data on affected locations. The most important thing that households can do is to notify Uisce Éireann of incidents.
They are generating heatmaps and data points to track down the sediment in the pipes. The feeling I got is that there needs to be an all-of-Cork response to get that data, so that the issue can be resolved.
To make that easier, I created a webapp that allows households to report incidents of discoloured water when it happens. This can be accessed at oliver.ie/water — so far there has been nearly 100 incidents logged by households using the webapp since I launched it.
Households are also advised to register with the Cork City Council alerts system that will alert them of water outages, as well as other alerts such as severe weather and traffic diversions. Registration is free at alerts.corkcity.ie.
In the news…
Work on Kilcully safety scheme set to begin
Cork City Council confirmed to the Green Party’s Oliver Moran that a valuer has been appointed to progress land acquisition for the Kilcully pedestrian safety scheme.
Echo, Tuesday, 30 April
Greater protection for Cork city’s trees
Green Party councillor, Oliver Moran, said the strategy had been enriched by the public engagement, but action is needed now.
Irish Examiner, Monday, 15 April
Cork council to consider taking out €10m loan to fund footpath repairs
Green Party councillor, Oliver Moran, said councillors allocated about €2m annually for estate roads resurfacing, but just €200,000 for footpath repairs.
Irish Examiner, Wednesday, 10 April
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 2024 re-election campaign.
You can also keep up to date with my activities on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Mastodon and TikTok. And don’t forget, you can email me any time at oliver.moran@greenparty.ie.
Have a great month!
