A joint venture of Cork based companies EPS Group and Sisk Construction was recently awarded the contract to design and build the 65,000 population equivalent wastewater treatment facility at Shanbally to serve the Cork Lower Harbour area. This is great news for the harbour area.
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MY MOTION TO FULL COUNCIL ON JAPANESE KNOTWEED, 14/08/2015
That in view of its obligations under
- Articles 49, 50 and 74 of the European Communities (Birds and Natural Habitats) Regulations,
- Article 56 of the Wildlife (Amendment) Act 2000,
- Article 8 of the Convention on Biological Diversity
- Article 4 of the Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats
- Target 8 of the National Biodiversity Plan 2011 – 2016
and particularly with regard to EU Regulation 1143/2014 on the prevention and management of the introduction and spread of invasive alien species which entered into force on 1st January 2015 and which lays down rules for the prevention and minimisation of the adverse impact of the spread of invasive alien species and requires a risk assessment within 18 months and a comprehensive control programme within 3 years,
- Cork County Council would dedicate either new or existing staff resources to addressing the issue of Japanese knotweed and other invasive species
- Cork County Council would devote some of the financial allocation to the Cork County Biodiversity Action Plan to:
- Improved training of on-the-ground staff, contractors and subcontractors in controlling the spread of Japanese knotweed
- Raising general public awareness of Japanese knotweed.
If I told you that a female alien had come down from space, was self-propagating and gradually invading the earth, what would you say? That as it grew and multiplied, it would gradually kill off our grasses, ferns, buttercups, daisies, nettles. It would kill off the butterflies, ladybirds and those familiar insects which depend on those plants. It would knock walls, damage paving, cause erosion of riverbanks and flood defence structures, it would destroy archaeological sites and it would attack homes. Would you stand idly by and watch it happen? Would you say “there’s nothing we can do”? Would you say “we don’t have adequate resources to control it. We’ll just have to let this alien take over”?
Because that is what is happening. And as Mother Nature is being choked and smothered, we are being less than chivalrous.
Japanese knotweed was brought to Europe in the mid-19th century by a German botanist who found it growing on the sides of volcanoes in Japan. It was lauded and celebrated as a new ornamental plant and in 1850, the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew received its first shipment of knotweed. Four years later, the plant was sold commercially in nurseries.
In its native Japanese volcanic landscape, the climate, natural predators and regular deposits of ash kept knotweed plants small. The plant survived because of the energy stores in its deep root system. But in Western Europe, without these impediments, it grows unabated.
At its most prolific it can grow up to 20cm EVERY DAY. That is 3 – 4 metres in just 10 weeks – the equivalent of two grown adults. Underground, its roots can spread 7 metres horizontally and can go down up to 3 metres.
All the Japanese knotweed all over the UK and Ireland have grown from that one single female specimen shipped to Kew in 1850. So because the plants are unfertilized by a male, they cannot produce flowers and hence, cannot produce seed. For the vast majority of plants, this would mean extinction. But not Japanese knotweed. A new plant can grow from miniscule fragments of ANY part of the plant.
So in the case of Japanese knotweed, the absolute worst thing you can do is to flail, chip or strim it on a roadside. Every tiny needle-sized fragment of the plant that flies out from under the chipper creates another new plant. Every wheel of every tractor or van that passes over the flailed material spreads it further down the road. Every cut stem left lying on the roadside verge will form another plant.
Knotweed costs the UK economy Stg£166 million per year for treatment and in home devaluations. One London-based couple saw the bamboo-like stems growing through the floor of their home. They were told it would be cheaper to knock down and rebuild their £300,000 home rather than try and treat their knotweed problem. Mortgages have been refused on properties in the UK with a single 3cm stand of Japanese knotweed in their garden. If a bank’s valuer finds evidence of it or if there is a history of it in the area, a specialist survey will be required. At least three banking institutions in the UK will not lend, whilst others will consider with the advice of a surveyor but require guarantees or an indemnity to be in place. Estimates now show at least one infestation of Japanese knotweed in every 10 sq kms in the UK.
And Ireland is rapidly following suit.
Section 49 of the Birds and Natural Habitats Regulations says that any person who plants, spreads or allows Japanese knotweed to spread is guilty of an offence. Yet last October I watched Cork County Council contractors flailing knotweed on the roadside verge of the R610 at Rochestown. And every day now, I watch the brand new knotweed plants springing forth from where they were spread. In this instance, Cork County Council was clearly guilty of an offence under the Birds and Natural Habitats Regulations.
But the European Parliament and Council have passed a new regulation which came into force on the first day of 2015. This regulation requires each Member State to carry out a risk assessment on all alien invasive species within 18 months and a comprehensive control programme within 3 years. That is a control programme for ALL invasive species. Not just Japanese knotweed. Bearing in mind the current rate of its spread, the tackling of Japanese knotweed would be a very good place to start teeing up for compliance with this regulation.
One of the advantages of always being behind the curve is that we rarely have to reinvent the wheel. There are many examples of interagency management of knotweed in the UK, of illustrative advice leaflets, of community forums. Our own NRA lays out the clearest and briefest of guidelines for the management of Japanese knotweed on roadside verges:
Step 1: Undertake a detailed assessment
Step 2: Implement the appropriate control measures
Step 3: Undertake post control monitoring.
Right now we can’t even do Step 1 because we don’t know where the Japanese knotweed is. And we can’t know where it is because most people don’t recognise it.
So I am asking that Cork County Council would allocate either new or existing staff resources to the Japanese knotweed issue. This does not have to be a full time position but we need to begin the mapping of stands of Japanese knotweed in County Cork. This work does not have to be done from scratch; we simply have to liaise with other mapping projects which are currently underway. For example, the Cork Branch of the Irish Wildlife Trust has been funded by Cork City Council to run a mapping project of knotweed and other invasives. This is ongoing at present.
And I am asking that Cork County Council would use some of the unspent financial allocation to the County’s Biodiversity Action Plan to raising awareness of Japanese knotweed. Training ground staff and contractors to recognise the plant. Developing methods of its control on roadside verges. Starting a campaign of awareness. Defining how ground staff and contractors should transport it. Defining where they should transport it to for destruction.
I’m not asking for a widespread 4-year programme of glyphosate injection into every stand of Japanese knotweed in County Cork. I’m asking for the most simple and common sense approach to getting a handle on our problem. Because right now we are being invaded and we are standing idly by rather than defending our homeland.
MY MOTION TO FULL COUNCIL ON RECOGNITION THAT THOSE WITH SPECIAL NEEDS LIVING IN OUR COMMUNITY MAY BE AFFECTED BY ADJACENT PLANNING DECISIONS, 25/05/2015
“That this Council acknowledges that those recognised as disabled under the Disability Act 2005 living within our community may have special needs which may be affected by adjacent planning decisions. Consequently this Council asks that government would amend standard planning guidelines to include consideration of those special needs when they are supported by medical expertise”.
Local government is all about social inclusion. A feature of social inclusion is that those with disabilities would be integrated as fully as possible into the community. One key aspect in achieving social inclusion for those with disabilities is to have secure and appropriate housing.
That is why the overall objective of the building and planning codes is to ensure that an effective legislative framework is in place to make the built environment accessible to all. Part M of the Building Regulations provides key design specifications to ensure people with disabilities can live comfortably in regular residential dwellings.
And local authorities further support that aim by requiring Disability Access Certificates for apartment blocks and by running the Mobility Aids Grant Scheme and the Housing Adaptation Grant for People with a Disability.
But in the context of the Building Regulations, Part M relates to physical disability and mobility issues. Contrary to this, the Disability Act 2005 considers the term disability to have a far broader remit. It defines disability as being a physical, sensory, mental health or intellectual impairment resulting in a significant difficulty in communication, learning, mobility or in significantly disordered cognitive processes giving rise to an ongoing need for supportive services.
In other words, disability does not solely relate to physical impairment.
To address this deficit in the Building Regulations, the government published a National Housing Strategy for People with a Disability in 2011. This aim of this publication was to mainstream access to independent living for adults with physical, mental, sensory and intellectual disabilities and to direct the efforts of housing authorities and the HSE to support people with a disability of any nature to live independently in their own homes.
The concept of the Strategy is worthy and welcome. But again, it is limited. It focuses only on the provision of appropriate social housing to those with any kind of a disability. There is neither legislation nor guidance from government to assist those with disabilities living in their own private homes.
The National Intellectual Disability Database Committee reported in 20094 that 74.4% of the population with an intellectual disability lives in private accommodation. In 2014, they estimated that some 66.8% of those with an intellectual disability live at home with family.
All documentation discussing the mainstreaming of people with disabilities into society refers to the need for a secure environment. What provides that essential security for people with an intellectual or mental disability living in their own private homes?
Security, whether able-bodied or otherwise, is important to all who live in their own homes. But for those with a mental disability, it can be critical.
A recent case in County Cork illustrates the current lack of support for those with intellectual disabilities living in their own homes. A boy with severe autism lives with his family in a relatively tight suburban estate. He presents with learning difficulties and acute sensory sensitivities. He wears ear defenders in the home to protect against everyday noise. Their home has been adapted to provide the safe spaces and environment he needs. The mother is a full time carer.
A planning application is submitted for the house immediately next door. The effect of the proposed works would be to materially alter the boy’s safe spaces. The construction noise would be, for him, beyond intolerable. The parents appealed to the planning authority, including letters of medical support from both their family doctor and specialised support services. Planning permission was granted. Why? Because the assessment of social/medical issues fell outside the normal remit of a planning application.
There is little point in a local government system providing secure social housing for those with mental disabilities when the planning system fails the appropriate housing needs of those living in their own homes.
Those living with disabilities in our communities, whether alone or as part of a family, are some of the most vulnerable in our society. Proper planning and sustainable development simply must consider the most vulnerable; otherwise how can it be sustainable? It is therefore vital that planning guidelines must require de facto consideration of the disabled already living in the community.
This is not the massive step is sounds. The structures are already in place. The needs of those with special vulnerabilities are already recognised and generally supported by the Health Service Executive and other specialised services under Part 2 of the Disability Act. The independent assessment of need legislated for in Part 2 will indicate the nature and extent of a person’s disability and their particular needs.
Guidance for planning considerations is already provided to planning authorities in a range of documents.
The best of advice towards providing fully integrated housing to those with disabilities repeatedly recommends the need for integration between the different services. The National Housing Strategy for People with a Disability3 states that “effectively meeting the housing needs of people with a disability requires an integrated, flexible and responsive approach”.
If a planning application is under consideration and that planning application has the potential to impact negatively on the special, medically recognised needs of a disabled person living adjacent, it is natural that the next step would for a planning authority to consult with the health and social services to obtain the benefit of their expertise. Only this way will a fair, holistic and sustainable decision be reached on that planning application.
We as a society owe a huge debt to those caring for the disabled in our communities. They devote their lives to society’s most vulnerable, giving them the best opportunity for a quality of life, the best opportunity to respond to their individual needs and the best opportunity to avoid institutional care. This is a stated objective of the government and of the HSE.
But often those carers’ ability to cope is balanced on a knife-edge. An adjacent planning decision which does not take their very often sensitive needs into consideration can topple that delicate balance, causing more distress and suffering than is humane. This one change in our statutory planning considerations could change that for the better for all the disabled and their carers.
Addendum to Chief Executive’s report on Port of Cork application
Following a lengthy discussion and debate regarding the Port of Cork’s current application under the Strategic Infrastructure Act the following document has been appended to the Chief Executive’s report.
(PL04.PA0035 as submitted to An Bord Pleanala under the Strategic Infrastructure Act)
Statement regarding AGM of Cork County Council
Copy of my email sent to all independents prior to the AGM of Cork County Council.
Dear all,
I am very conscious that we all voluntarily came together as a group of Independents last Saturday with an agreed spokesperson and that whilst much water has gone under the bridge since Tuesday, I have spoken to just some and not all of you on my position.
I do not wish to be part of the “agreement” proposed on Tuesday prior to our induction meeting in the Chamber. My reasons are myriad, but the primary and over-riding one is that I cannot and will not give up even the perception of the independence which was so important to those who voted for me. I have no desire to wear a chain nor to hold the position of a chair. Therefore I do not consider that a 5-year alignment with any political grouping in return for these positions is adequate reward for the loss of the absolute independence I guaranteed to those who placed their trust in me. Whilst I appreciate that we will have months to work on the budget prior to its being brought before full Council, I cannot commit to supporting a budget about which I may have reservations for any of those five years. The aims to be worked towards in the run-up to the budget do not come close to meeting the priorities I outlined to those who voted for me. The additional committee positions being offered as part of the proposed agreement do not offer me any opportunity to influence policy in areas where I have expertise.
It was clear from our meeting on Saturday that we had formed a defined group to increase our chances of getting the positions on committees that we particularly wanted. It was also clear that our forming a group would allow us the opportunity to appoint a group chair to an SPC and consequently get to take a seat at CPG meetings. The benefits of this approach are self-evident.
But what was equally clear at Saturday’s meeting was that our formation of a group had no relation to any pact or agreement with any other party. Indeed, this position was voiced and confirmed prior to our going our separate ways. Our individual positions as independent members of the Chamber was also clarified.
I have to be truthful and say that, at a personal level, I was blown away at the leap our voluntary grouping had taken between Saturday lunchtime and Tuesday morning. At our Tuesday meeting, it became clear that negotiations with regard to an agreement with political parties had been undertaken on our group’s behalf. As a member of that group, I certainly had not been informed of even an intention to undertake such negotiations.
As confirmed at our Saturday meeting, each member of our group is independent. Should any one of you wish to be part of the 5-year agreement with Fianna Fail and Labour, that is of course your prerogative. I choose not to be part of it for the aforementioned reasons. I have made it clear to John Paul that as agreed on Saturday, I will support him to take the chair of the SPC of his choice and, indeed, should he wish to propose himself for the position of Mayor tomorrow, I will also support him in that.
As it was clear that the formation of our independent group was not aligned with any agreement or pact of any kind, I hope I am correct in assuming that our independent group will continue to work together towards the aims for which it was established. Should I not be correct in that assumption, I should be grateful if you would let me know.
I look forward to working with all of you.
All the best,
Marcia.
Farewell to the town council
Link to my Irish Times article on the loss of town councils…
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Leaflet delivery
From rob@marciadalton.net
On behalf of Marcia I would like to let you know that we have had a difficulty with our leaflet delivery company.
A specialised leaflet delivery company was employed to deliver the leaflets to everyone in the Ballincollig/Carrigaline ward. Sadly, it would appear that very many people did not receive their leaflet and the company have not been able to pinpoint exactly where the leaflets were delivered.
Between Marcia’s volunteer helpers and myself we are distributing leaflets as fast as we can so that you may read them before the election.
I would like to apologise to anyone who receives the same leaflet twice. It was not our intention to have this happen. I also had reports of leaflets being delivered out of the ward – I have been told that this has only happened in a small number of cases but I not confident that this is true.
If you haven’t received print literature and would like some, please email me at the above address and I will organise a delivery for you.
Rob.
Marcia’s husband and poster hanger!
From The Examiner, 28/04/2014
