Miscellaneous · 20 May 2024
MAYNOOTH CYCLING CAMPAIGN ANNUAL REPORT 2023
Main Activities of Maynooth Cycling Campaign
- Article submitted to the Maynooth Newsletter in most months
- Attended meetings of the Maynooth Community Council
- Represented the PPN on the Transport, Safety and Emergency Services SPC
- Attended Board meetings of the Dublin Cycling Campaign CLG
- Carried out bike counts in Maynooth primary and secondary schools
- In January, resigned as Coordinator of the Finance and Membership Action Group of Cyclist.ie
- In February, secured €1000 from Kildare Climate Action.
- In March, secured funding of €1400rom Kildare Community grants and the Local Property Tax
- In June, resigned from the SPC as not allowed to sit on both the SPC and the Sustainabile Transport Forum. Joined the latter.
- In June, participated in the Community Council’s Picnic in the Park with the trishaw
- In November, participated in Kildare Sports Activity Day in Maynooth University
- In November, resigned from Dublin Cycling Campaign CLG due to differences of opinion.
- Made a submission on the Maynooth Mill Street Active Travel Scheme
Restructuring
Cycle campaigning changed radically with the restructuring of Cyclist.ie and transition from a federation of campaigns to the Irish Cycling Campaign, one national organisation. It is unclear how many local campaigns will continue as they are or amalgamate with the Irish Cycling Campaign. Maynooth Cycling Campaign will make this decision in 2024.
Purchase of Trishaw
In the spring of 2023, Maynooth Cycling Campaign secured the last piece of the funding jigsaw for the purchase of the trishaw with funding from Kildare County Council to add to the funding from Kildare Sports Partnership and Healthy Kildare. We established a branch of Cycling Without Age and now share the trishaw with St. John of God/Genil Training in Maynooth.
Transport Strategic Policy Committee (SPC)
At the SPC meeting in February, after three frustrating years, Maynooth Cycling Campaign finally succeeded in including a proposal on Bike (Bunkers) Hangars in the SPC Work Programme . However, with just over one year remaining to the next Council elections, the chances of any progress on Bunkers through the SPC are remote.
Sustainability Forum
Like the SPC, the agenda is determined by officials and the Chair rather than external representatives such as Maynooth Cycling Campaign. The September meeting included an item on Bike Libraries and cycling on quiet country roads, also known as Rothar Roads.
As a cycling organisation, Maynooth Cycling Campaign had already heard talks on Bike Libraries on two previous occasions. The proposal was well received by the councillors present but there no indication that Kildare County Council would provide any funding for them.
In general, Maynooth Cycling Campaign is not in favour of Rothar Roads except where there are very low levels of traffic. In the past it had proposed cycling on quiet roads as part of a submission on the Barrow Greenway, but this was rejected by the Council. On Rothar Roads, councillors expressed differing views. Despite this, the Chair’s summary was that the forum was generally in favour. Maynooth Cycling Campaign asked for a vote as not everyone had expressed an opinion. While the Chair initially accepted the proposal for a vote, the decision was overturned. It was decided that both opinions would be submitted to the SPC.
Cycling without Age
As part of our commitment to Cycling for All, Maynooth Cycling Campaign called for volunteers to pilot the trishaw and 12 people responded. The first batch were trained by Clara Clark, the founder of Cycling without Age Ireland. Subsequently, the Chair undertook two training programmes and is now able to train our own volunteers locally.
While we have secured our trishaw and trained our pilots, we have been unsuccessful in attracting the general public to use our service. This remains the biggest channel for 2024. We closed down in November for the winter months but propose to reopen in the spring.