PROPOSAL: In section 14.3, Active Travel and Greenways, add the following objective: “Worth with schools and any appropriate stakeholders to find creative ways to support active travel to schools, both in urban and rural areas, including for example creation of cycling infrastructure, covered bike storage spaces and parking-free zones to ensure the safety of students actively travelling.”
RATIONALE: While the KCDP contains an objective to develop cycle ways with links to urban schools (“Develop in accordance with the National Cycle Manual and the NTA, an integrated network of cycle ways in our larger urban centres, to ensure permeability within and between residential areas, linking to town centres, schools and places of work informed by Transport Mobility Plans for Tralee, Killarney and Listowel.”), this is not ambitious enough and ignores the requirements of rural children. Rural children should be enabled and empowered to cycle or walk to school. While acknowledging that there are additional challenges in provisioning active travel infrastructure in rural locations, every school situation is different, and there are very likely creative solutions that could be supported by the local authority to allow rural children actively travel to school in a safe and comfortably. The local authority should endeavour to work with stakeholders to find such solutions and then implement them.
In addition, MaREI centre research (Microsoft Word - How and Why We Travel – Mobility Demand and Emissions from Passenger Transport - MaREI Template.docx) has shown that companion/escort journeys (such as dropping off children to school) have the highest emissions intensity by journey purpose, and comprise over one tenth of all journeys in Ireland. Providing safe and accessible opportunities for children to cycling to school should decrease the volume of such journeys, increasing air quality, reducing congestion and dangerous driving at school locations, and encourage a healthier lifestyle for children.
PROPOSAL: In Section 14.6, Air Transport, add the following sentence: “Kerry County Council acknowledges that Air Transport is an extremely carbon intensive form of travel, and air-travel is a significant contributor to climate change. As such, where reasonable lower-emission alternatives to air transport exist, as is often the case in regional journeys (such as the train from Farranfore to Dublin Heuston), it is the policy of Kerry County Council to support those alternatives rather than air transport.”
RATIONALE: In line with the second goal of the KCDP, ‘The transition to a Low Carbon and Climate Resilient Society’, it is inadmissible that the section on Air Transport does not acknowledge the significant greenhouse gas emissions caused by air transport compared to other forms of travel. Not acknowledging the harm that air travel causes in terms of climate change is incompatible with attempting to transition to a low carbon and climate resilient society.
PROPOSAL: Remove the word ‘sustainable’ from KCDP 14-48: “Promote and support the sustainable development of Kerry International Airport by optimising international/regional connectivity through investment and increased capacity and capitalise on the associated wider economic benefits for Kerry and the wider region.”
RATIONALE: Air Travel, particularly air travel that is made possible through public service obligation levies, is in general not a sustainable form of transport, and it is both inappropriate and inaccurate to describe development of Kerry International Airport as sustainable if that development is aimed at optimising regional connectivity through air travel when public transport alternatives exist. This amounts to greenwashing and is incompatible with the second goal of the KCDP. If there are plans to develop and increase the number of flights operating out of Kerry, there should not be an attempt to greenwash this.
PROPOSAL: Add an objective under Section 14.5, Public Transport:
“Promote public transport over private vehicle and air transport, and do not support private vehicle and air transport initiatives if there are reasonable public transport alternatives that could be made available.”
RATIONALE: The above objective must be in the plan if the plan it to truly have a goal regarding “The transition to a Low Carbon and Climate Resilient Society”. Promoting emissions-intensive forms of transport where lower-emission alternatives are possible contravenes this stated goal. In particular, in the Air Transport section, there is a very concerning lack of any mention of the contribution of air transport to climate change, and it is critical that no air transport schemes/initiatives are supported where there are lower-emissions alternatives available, such as public transport by rail and bus.
PROPOSAL: Replace KCDP 14-41, “Promote the sustainable delivery of a reliable, integrated, low-carbon and cost-effective public transport system for the County”, with “Promote and proactively support the sustainable delivery of a reliable, integrated, low-carbon and cost-effective public transport system for the County.”
RATIONALE: It is not sufficient that the local authority only promotes public transport. It should also proactively support public transport initiatives; not doing so would contravene the second goals of KCDP, “The transition to a Low Carbon and Climate Resilient Society”.
PROPOSAL: Add an objective to section 14.9, Digital Connectivity: “Ensure the cybersecurity and cyber resiliency of the county through promotion of cybersecurity and cybersecurity best practices and through enhancement of the cybersecurity of critical infrastructure in the county, particularly in relation to ransomware threats.”
RATIONALE: Cyberattacks, particularly ransomware attacks, are continually increasing both in frequency and the damage they cause. The HSE ransomware attack succeeded because of a lack of investment in cybersecurity, as clear from the report published by PWC (conti-cyber-attack-on-the-hse-full-report.pdf). It is critical that Kerry organizations, particularly critical infrastructure organizations, are cyber resilient, and the council has a role to play in ensuring and promoting the cybersecurity and cyber resiliency of the county.