MOTHERLOAD

Last month, Maynooth Cycling Campaign announced that we would be screening the award winning film MOTHERLOAD in May.  Make a note in your diary! We are delighted to announce that it will be screened at 8:00pm on Thursday 15th May as part of Bikeweek 2025. The venue will be confirmed at a later date. 

The film will be of particular interest to people who may be considering a cargo bicycle instead of a second car and who would like more information of what a Bike Library may offer. 

To get a taste of the film, you can view the official  trailer at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkklZNE9S-g . 

Climate Change

In January, two people lost their lives in Storm Éowyn and the financial damage is estimated to be in the range of €300M. 

In March, Professor Peter Thorne from Maynooth University’s Icarus Climate Research Centre appeared  on RTE’s Nine O’Clock News. He stated that ‘Governments have to act now. If we don’t, things will get worse very very quickly …….. The temperature rise is not linear- its impacts are very non-linear. They are going to increase very quickly.’

The Climate Change Advisory Council stated that the government must invest now to rapidly improve its preparedness and ability to respond to extreme weather events. It called on the government to stop procrastination on the decisions that are needed.

The Climate Change Advisory Council in conjunction with the Fiscal Council and Climate Change Advisory Council also recently issued a joint report. Their report, ‘A colossal missed opportunity‘, sets out potential costs for Ireland from missing agreed EU targets. These could amount to staggering payments of between €8bn and €26bn to Europe.

In view of the rejection by Maynooth MD councillors of measures to increase bike use in the Maynooth & Environs Local Area Plan (LAP), perhaps the political parties will indicate who they think should pay the cost of larger fines – people who supported additional  permeability measures to promote cycling under the LAP or people who opposed the measures?

Increase in Private Cars

In the Irish Republic, between 2000 and 2020, the number of private vehicles registered for tax rose by 63% from 1,319,250 to 2,215,1127. No one was asked to approve this increase. No one was asked about the impact on road accidents or road fatalities. No one was asked about the worsening air and noise pollution. Yet people are getting in a twist over a relatively small increase in the number of cyclists. 

KCC  & the Sustainable Transport Forum

When Kildare County Council abolished the Kildare Cycle Forum, it announced that the forum would be incorporated into a new Sustainable Transport Forum (STF). It took some two years for the Transport Strategic Policy Committee to establish the new forum. During the term of the last council, the last STF meeting took place in February 2024. The minutes from that meeting have still not been circulated. 

Maynooth Cycling Campaign is particularly interested in the minutes as we were able to raise an issue of particular interest and importance concerning climate targets. We are waiting to see if the minutes will refer to the matter.   Since the local government elections in May 2024, the Transport SPC has met once in February  but the re-establishment of  the Sustainable Transport Forum was not on the agenda. It suggests that a forum of sustainable transport stakeholders is not a high priority of Kildare County Council. 

Maynooth Cycling Campaign is a non-party independent local lobby group in Kildare. ​​