August 2022
Hi, there! — Welcome to the fifth issue of my monthly newsletter to keep you up to date on my work for Cork City North East.
Please let me know what you think. If you have any feedback, questions or want to raise an issue, just drop me a line at oliver.moran@greenparty.ie.
All the best!
Oliver
p.s. You can share this newsletter, and invite other people you know to register, by sharing this link ... oliver.ie/newsletter.
Motions and notions
There will be no ordinary meeting of Cork City Council in August for the Summer break — although there are some meetings dealing with specific items like approving individual housing developments.
I still want to include this section to the monthly email to say thank you to the wonderful members of the Cork North City Greens. They group have produced brilliant ideas for motions and thought provoking questions over the past year. 👏👏
Every month, each councillor can submit up to four motions to Cork City Council. Before the deadline each month, I meet with my local group 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/join
What's happening?
Affordable housing
The first 177 "affordable houses" in Cork are to open for applications in August. This is the Newtown Heights scheme on the Boherboy Road.
Affordable housing is where houses are sold but where Cork City Council will keep a portion of the the house, which can be bought out later. This reduces the price, making the homes a little more affordable.
Combined with a Local Authority Home Loan, this has the potential to enable more people to purchase a home.
The scheme is targeted at households needing a home and with an income roughly between €50,000 and €80,000 for a three-bedroom house. Anyone who believes they wouldn't otherwise qualify for a mortgage, should look at the calculator on the Local Authority Home Loan website.
Seventy per cent of the houses will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis, and the remainder on a lottery basis. This was something I sought to amend because I am worried it the first-come-first-served basis will add unnecessary stress. However, it is unfortunately baked into the national legislation for the scheme.
These are the first of 253 affordable housing schemes in the pipeline across the city. Other locations coming up will include:
Crann Danach, Montenotte (27)
Hawkes Road, Bishopstown (35)
O’Cualann Housing, Knocknaheeny (17)
Churchfield East (21)
Coolflugh, Tower (36)
The prices for each scheme will vary, like private schemes, with the price varying depending on the construction costs, etc.
Glanmire pedestrian/cycle route
A really beautiful pedestrian/cycle scheme was published this month for Glanmire. It's Phase 1 of a route to the city centre via fully segregated cycleways.
It includes a new community space in Glanmire village and 70m of cantilevered boardwalk overlooking the Glashaboy estuary. Just wow…!
It's a really wonderful scheme that shows how plans like these can open opportunities that were hidden before.
Glanmire village is a gem. Imagine when both phases of this scheme are complete. A visitor will be able to step off a train at Kent Station, hire a city bike and visit this amazing location.
But the immediate benefit will be to residents in Glanmire, the public realm in Glanmire village and a brilliant looped amenity around the area.
Connected with the other schemes that are already underway in the area, it puts us at the cusp of being able to support safe commuting by bike between Glanmire, the city centre and Little Island.
That's a huge leap forward towards something that was just a dream a only three years ago when I was elected to Cork City Council.
The proposal documents can be viewed online and a public consultation is open until 4:00pm on Friday, 26 August.
Sectoral climate targets
Last week, the Government agreed minimum sectoral goals for climate action across broad sectors of the economy, like housing, industry, agriculture and transport.
The Climate Action Plan from last year set out ranges for each sector based on the minimum that could be asked to the maximum that was seen to be achievable. Comparing those original sectoral ranges to the minimums agreed last week gives an impression of the ambition being put on each sector.
While agriculture has taken a lot of the headlines, we've set ourselves a high ambition in electricity, transport and industry. Those area areas where the state can have a direct input, in changing our energy networks, increasing public and sustainable transport, and other ways. When people are thinking about work on BusConnects and commuter rail here in the city, that's an example of that ambition in action, of which more is going to have to come.
Agriculture is mid-way along the range. There's no doubt about the strength of the agricultural lobby and questions of what kinds of farmers they actually represent. But I've seen comments this week that, like us or loathe us, the Green Party is the only political party ever to stand up to that lobby. People shouldn't underestimate how challenging that is and the political bravery involved.
The minimum being required of residential and commercial buildings are at the low end of the range. That reflects the huge operational challenge involved in retrofitting hundreds of thousands of homes. The measures already in place are phenomenal, including full free retrofitting for homes, but the labour involved and the timescales necessary put it in a different category.
Even with these measures, there is still 5.25 MtCO2eq "unallocated", which will need to be accounted for somewhere under the law. That point underlines how these are sectoral ceilings for CO2 emissions, not targets. They need to be exceeded, not met.
In the news...
Concerns pricing of new affordable homes in Cork remains 'out of reach for a lot of people'
Details of the first of a number of new affordable housing schemes to be launched by Cork City Council have been published.
First phase of cycle scheme linking Glanmire to city centre goes to public consultation
Cork City Council has published details of the multi-million euro Glanmire to city cycle route (phase one) scheme.
Farmers up for challenge: Cork response to deal on emissions
A reduction in the range of 62% to 81% was outlined for electricity, with a 42% to 50% reduction in transport, while farmers have to reduce carbon ...
Keep in touch
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Have a great month!