September 2024
Hi, there! — Welcome to the thirtieth 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 a ‘third space’ for rough sleepers in the city centre, signs for the public toilets on Grand Parade, and commemorating Mother Jones — as well as questions confirming the name of Mary MacSwiney Bridge and the locating of drinking water fountains in public parks.
I’ve also included updates on the rates paid on vacant commercial properties, another bridge named after a woman in the ward as well as the “chit-chat” group in Mayfield.
If ever there’s anything you want to get in touch about, or just to let me know your thoughts on this newsletter, feel welcome to email me any time at oliver.moran@greenparty.ie.
Please remember you can share this newsletter with your friends and neighbours in the ward as well.
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 the status of confirming or re-affirming the name of Mary MacSwiney Bridge and the locating of a plaque identifying the bridge at a suitable location at pedestrian level, such as at the intersection of the bridge and Dublin Street in Blackpool (motion 22/236).”
I will also ask the following question at the meeting of the North East ward Local Area Committee:
“To ask the Chief Executive the status of locating drinking water fountains at the Glen River Park, Tank Field and John O’Callaghan Park, for which €20,000 was provided from the Local Area Committee budget in 2022.”
Motions
“That Cork City Council will collaborate with other stakeholders to provide a ‘third space’ in the city centre, including welfare facilities, with appropriate security, for rough sleepers and users of homeless accommodation in the city.”
“That Cork City Council will write to the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment seeking the regulation of demand-based pricing in hospitality, transport, entertainment and other sectors.”
“That Cork City Council will provide additional street signage to highlight the location of the public toilets on Grand Parade and other locations.”
“That Cork City Council will commemorate the centenary of the publication of the autobiography of Mother Jones with the naming of an appropriate location or development or other suitable commemoration in her honour in 2025.”
What’s happening?
Rates on vacant buildings
Cork City Council is inviting the public to have their say on rates paid by owners of vacant commercial properties in the city.
Currently, property owners receive a 50% reduction on commercial rates when a property is empty. The argument for this is not to charge property owners when a business is idle.
Unfortunately, like with housing, there seems to be an interest in keeping some commercial properties empty. That can have a very negative impact on an area.
The effect is that the current scheme can act in a perverse way to encourage vacancy, when vacancy should be discouraged.
A public consultation is now open on whether this should continue or be modified in some way.
Other urban local authorities have been moving away from the idea of giving a reduction to owners to keep a property empty. Last year, Dublin City Council did away with it altogether. It’s possible to apply the scheme in a more nuanced way too, so that it’s not just a blanket 50% reduction.
The consultation that’s open now is asking the public for their opinion in a very open-ended way. This will feed into the eventual decision on commercial rates in the city budget in November.
To have your say, simply email vacancy@corkcity.ie before Monday, 30 September, letting officials know what you think of the current scheme and how you would modify it or do away with it entirely.
Mary MacSwiney Bridge
This month, I was able to confirm with officials the name of Mary MacSwiney Bridge in Blackpool. This is something that I have been working on since 2022, when it was brought to my attention by local historians.
It will mean a second bridge in Cork is named after a woman, alongside Mary Elmes Bridge, also in the ward.
Mary MacSwiney Bridge is the dual carriageway overpass that passes over Dublin Street in Blackpool village. The bridge is currently lacking a plaque and when I previously inquired about this the official status of the name was uncertain.
Cork City Council has now confirmed that the official name of this bridge is “Maire McSwiney Bridge”.
The bridge is assumed to be named after Mary MacSwiney, founder of the Cork branch of Cumann na mBan in 1914, TD, vice-president of Sinn Féin after the split with Fianna Fáil, and sister of Lord Mayor and hunger striker, Terence MacSwiney.
However, it may also refer to Terence MacSwiney’s daughter, Máire MacSwiney.
The name was presumably given to the bridge when the Blackpool bypass opened in 2001 but had all but fallen out of official usage and no plaque had ever been installed.
Officials have also confirmed that the cost of installing a suitably designed plaque will be approximately €5,000, which I will propose is funded from the ward-level budget to be placed at pedestrian level under the bridge on Dublin Street.
Chit-chat group in Mayfield
Last month, I had the pleasure to again visit the weekly chit-chat group at the Mayfield Community Development Project. This time, we were joined by the Lord Mayor, my Green Party colleague, Dan Boyle.
The group meet every Tuesday at 11:00am for an hour and is an open door to anyone who wants to join others for some easy-going conversation, teas and coffees and maybe a little song.
The group is an example of the importance and power of people meeting with other people for no other reason except to talk.
The first time I dropped in on the group, I couldn’t believe the babble of easy-going conversation going on. The magic is how those conversations have kept going. It’s made easy by keeping the group to an hour and basic rules that make everyone welcome.
Different people join for different reasons, whether it is to meet old friends, to make new ones, or just to get out of the house for a while, but everyone leaves with the same sense of belonging and that’s the key.
If you want to drop in on the chit-chat group, the group meets every Tuesday at 11:00am in the Mayfield Community Development Project on the Old Youghal Road.
In the news…
School therapists, sight-saving operations or a home: Cork politicians say funding for €336k bike shed could have been spent differently
Oliver Moran, the Green Party councillor in Cork City North East, said the figure being linked to the bike shed was incredible.
Echo, Tuesday, 3 September
‘Fines alone’ will not solve Cork parking problem
Green Party councillor for Cork North East, Oliver Moran, said: “Often, you’ll see someone pulled up on a footpath imagining it’s a courtesy for other road users.”
Echo, Friday, 23 August
Mixed reactions to latest RSA advert
Green Party Cork city councillor, Oliver Moran, has accused the ad of marginalising non-motorist road users.
C103, Thursday, 22 August
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 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!
