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COUNCILLORS ON A Dublin local authority have voted against providing safe walking and cycling routes for schools as part of their development plan.
Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, Labour and Renua councillors on Fingal Council joined forces to narrowly shoot down a motion which would have included, as an objective in the development plan the provision of safe walking and cycling routes for new schools.
The 2017-2023 Fingal Development Plan sets out the planning and zoning requirements for the local authority area, which is the fastest-growing in Ireland.
Councillors are continuing to hold meetings to decide broader council’s plans for the area for next five years.
The motion, a video of which is available here, proposed by the Green Party, was defeated by 19 votes to 16.
The Government schools cycling policy commits to providing safe cycling and walking routes to schools. Many schools in Fingal are some distance from the pupils’ main residential areas.
The Malahide/Portmarnock Educate Together national school, for example, is in Kinsealy – miles from main population centres like Portmarnock, Malahide or Clongriffin.
Green Party councillor David Healy proposed a motion to commit the the council to acquire and develop foot- and cycle-paths between schools and residential areas when acquiring and developing land for new schools.
At the meeting, Fingal Council Manager Matthew McAleese said they had a difficulty with the motion, especially as it might lead to compulsory purchase orders (CPO) for the creation of cycling routes for the schools. CPOs involves the acquisition of land for public purpose without requiring the consent of the owners.
Mayor Darragh Butler (Fianna Fáil) questioned whether the motion could delay schools “and potentially hold us to hostage in terms of the price we pay”.
Healy said the county’s development plan already provides for CPOs and acquisition of sites for schools on behalf of the Department of Education, and the cycling and footpath routes would be an add-on to that process.
“It’s not something new that we would be doing. The only question is, are we serious in providing safe cycling and walking routes to school, or not? Because at the moment we have a spectacular failure.”
The motion was proposed after safety concerns from Portmarnock Community Association and other community groups in Lusk and Rush.
In September, two young boys were killed while cycling in separate incidents in Louth and Offaly. All told, nine cyclists have lost their lives this year, including two in Dublin.
Twenty-one pedestrians have died so far this year, meanwhile, according to the latest Garda statistics. Yesterday, pupils from St Columba’s school on the North Strand in Dublin called on motorists – and cyclists – to obey red lights outside their school.
Galling
Cllr Natalie Treacy (Sinn Féin) told TheJournal.ie that the motion was a “no-brainer”.
“Why would anyone one vote against it? As a mother I would always put the safety needs of people and especially children to the for fore.”
“It’s a huge surprise that people could vote against something like this,” David Healy told TheJournal.ie. ”Thousands of students will be affected, basically the whole of Fingal.
People were saying it would have interfered with commerce, and people’s ability to do business. But it’s not as if you’re shutting down the entire transport network.
It’s about safety and encouraging active travel, and sustainable ways for getting around. Public transport links to existing and planned schools aren’t great.
The Government’s National Cycle Policy framework states: “We will provide safe cycling routes to all primary and secondary schools and third level colleges by 2020″.
Who voted what
In keeping with this, Healy’s proposed amendment to the development plan stated:
In tandem with identifying and procuring new school sites, plan safe walking and cycling routes to school from the residential areas to be served by the school. Where land must be acquired to provide these routes, work with landowners and relevant parties to acquire or arrange for the necessary land.
The Council’s own planning department opposed the motion, as did Fine Gael (5), Fianna Fáil (5), and two Labour councillors. Six independents and one from Renua also voted against. Sorted by ward, they are:
Sixteen councillors from the Green Party, Anti-Austerity Alliance, Sinn Féin, Social Democrats and several independents supported the motion.
Four councillors were absent: Barry Martin (Ind); Brian Dennehy (FF); Tony Murphy (Ind) and Edmond Lukusa (SF).
Councillor Butler told TheJournal.ie:
If I voted against Councillor Healy’s motion it would have been to support the management and the professional planners who in my mind would have made a better argument as to what could be realistically delivered.
“If the motion was defeated then obviously more councillors agreed with the Council management than with Councillor Healy.”
Youngest population in Ireland
Stretching across north and west county Dublin from Balbriggan, Swords, to Blanchardstown, Castleknock and Santry and Howth head, Fingal has the youngest population in Ireland.
It’s also the fastest growing local authority area in Ireland, growing 8% between the 2011 and 2016 censuses censuses.
The Government’s National Cycle Policy states:
We will provide safe cycling routes to all primary and secondary schools and third level colleges by 2020. An audit will be carried out of every school / routes leading to the school from residential areas.
It says the responsibility for this is with local authorities (ie councils) and the Department of Transport.
Fingal planning department also opposed 30kh speed limits around cycling routes. That motion for 30kph speed limits near schools was nevertheless passed.
Fingal Council management did not comment when asked by TheJournal.ie.
Last night, 27 councillors voted in favour of a separate motion tabled by Councillor Healy, providing for specific cycling routes to certain schools across Fingal.
The motions were to add cycle/pedestrians route between
The Council opposed last night’s motion.
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I wonder how they will do the player stats? Will it be relative, or exactly the same scale as the men? A woman with the same physical stats as a man wouldn’t make much sense.
I think they’re making their own seperate scales for men and women. Unfortunately it won’t be possible to play female sides versus male sides.
Get your tlts out for the lads Andy gray be delighted
Will they bouncy bounce…..
intelligent input, cheers
Well after about 20 games or whatever they’re gonna have to come up with something new.
Women’s football is dire.
it raises the profile of the women’s game and the players on the teams probably get a fee for using their names and faces that’s the only reason i can see…
Or maybe it’s so women playing the game can play as women?
I’m more annoyed that fifa 16 is more the same as 15 and nothing has changed.
Like every other year?
your’re complaining about fifa not changing on an article about how fifa has changed to iclude women’s teams ???
Some people are never happy, huh!?
I was thinking more of adding new leagues like the Ukraine one, being able to change how much of a crowd there is, less bugs and crashes online and making it more real like handballs and such. I don’t mind women football in it but it will be forgotten about when the game comes out as it only really a few international teams and no club league team at all.
The inclusion of women teams will have no negative impact on other modes in the game so the indignation appearing on social media would appear to be attributable to misogyny. This isn’t being imposed on people, they can simply ignore the women teams and continue playing as they would any other year.
Gamer culture is rife with sexism, especially the Fifa, GTA and COD subcultures.
I agree a lot of gamers are sexist and to be a woman playing video games online must be infuriating.
But women like Anita Sarkeesian (I think that’s how you spell her name?) and her followers really don’t help that at all. She thinks up ways games are sexist from no where. Examples being in the game “Hitman Absolution” at one point of the game you walk through a strip club and are able to shoot the people in the strip club and even though you are penalised for doing it she said its sexist because its advocating violence against women. She’s done the same with the GTA game series too.
She makes up shite about games and is lauded on this site for it. That lad last week made up shite about mad max and was slammed by the same writers. The pair of then are more alike than different.
You should watch “reviewtechusa” on YouTube and his most recent video about her inclusion in times most influential people and how she got there.Very interesting stuff.
I’ll have a look at that. I always have a bad feeling about people who are placed above criticism, especially when they are in the business of criticism themselves. Still, there’s a part of me that can’t help admire how she can rake in the cash while having the tumblratchikks do all of the donkey work. Not admire in an approving way, it’s more like the admiration I feel watching Wolf of Wall Street.
The thing I can’t understand is how people can actually agree with what she is saying. It literally makes no sense what so ever and people still listen to her.
It’s bit about right and wrong, it’s about confirmation bias and agendas . Victim status has its own advantages so they just lap up whatever suits their current view.
So many sexist comments there…
Did you expect anything less?
What are you on about? There’s no such thing as sexism, *especially* among journal commenters
My wife’s a girl and she thinks it’s a step back, she says them girls should be at home making the dinners not playing keepy upies
Will be interesting to see the women player’s stats compared to the mens. And how accurate the models are. Feels like a pointless nod to progressives at the moment.
Firstly, IT’S A GAME!! Stats are fictional. They’re abitrary numbers.
Secondly, for someone who thinks it is some weird progressive nod, you seem to hold the character Magneto in high esteem using him as your avatar & name where the entire basis of his character was an analogy (Malcolm X) for the struggle of LGBTQ & African American people…. unless you were doing it as some pointless nod to progressives…
Malcolm X did not care for LGBTQ people that’s incredibly inaccurate.
Sorry google suggests Malcolm X was actually a rent boy while it was Martin Luther King that was no fan of the LBGT’s.
“Incredibly inaccurate”. That is perfect. You made my day Joe :)
In fairness Ciaran I’ve corrected the record, I mixed my black revolutionaries up and had never realised Malcolm X was in to blokes.
I never said he was first of all. Secondly if you read the original comment I was saying how the character was an analogy for both of these issues. You were the one who was calling him a “rent boy”. You’re a terrible homophobe & sexist! The entire thread of comments here has been a pure torrent of sexism & misogyny. What is wrong with you people?!
Why are you talking about lgbt and race issues Ciaran? Neither have anything to do with what I posted.
Are you denying Ciaran a safe space? Bigot!
I think it’s a cool feature to add but for this instalment it will get boring for people quickly since there are no women’s leagues going to be in the game. Maybe in a few years time we will be seeing a women’s football FIFA game on the shelves in GameStop since its quickly rising in popularity.
To all the people enraged and upset by this allow me to add a bit of perspective-
IT’S A F*”KING COMPUTER GAME!!! GET OVER IT!
FIFA and a fap. Great news!
Wonder will they be wearing extra tight shorts just like Sepp advises.
It would be interesting to see how many people would like to play as female football players. As mentioned in one of those tweets, one would imagine there are other features the community want more.
Seems they are just looking for easy press for a stale old franchise and usual rags have obliged. In years to come I’ll laugh when people look back and remember the years of ‘femsploitation’ and the idiots who fell for it.
So u mean that it’s a woman in the picture??? !!
Adds women… Doesn’t add Stephanie Roche!… EA for you folks!
Shocking that EA isn’t making it a paid DLC.
Shocking EA isn’t releasing it as a paid DLC.
have your say