Thinking differently on potholes and pollinators
“Politics isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but it was never so important,” insists local Green Party councillor Mark Hackett.
Cllr Hackett said as he is out and about in the Edenderry area, as both a farmer and a local councillor, meeting people, he realises that most people have local issues on their minds, with roads, public lighting and traffic speed topping the list every time.
“Next come livelihoods, and the future of our children, he said.
Recounting one conversation recently, he said a local person told him: ‘I don’t believe in climate change’.
Cllr Hackett continued: “I replied ‘Would you agree it’s raining far more than ever?’ and she said she would. A recent report shows that Ireland has had the highest rainfall on record for eight consecutive months. This is causing havoc for work plans, including on our farms and for road maintenance teams.”
He said as a farmer he is an eternal optimist. “I love this time of year and believe the weather will soon pick up, the land will dry out and all animals will be out enjoying the lush grass.
“As a Green, I see the impact of climate change and biodiversity loss all around us. In the council, the change in climate is impacting most especially on the roads programme, pushing up costs and increasing maintenance needs. Costs which are, ultimately, borne by the taxpayer.
He said this year Offaly County Council has an initial budget of over €27 million and much work will be undertaken on roads in the coming months.
“Every problem has a solution but, to paraphrase Albert Einstein ‘we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them’. It is great to see that the council has deployed two new Velocity Patchers which provide a lower carbon option for road maintenance, and which run on HVO (Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil). A third vehicle was purchased recently, allowing for a permanent stationing of a machine in each municipal district.
He said he believed there was also a solution to the dramatic decline in biodiversity, which lay in “the protection of hedgerows and trees, the upskilling of contractors in the nature preservation skills, the planting of native woodland on public land, to name a few”.
These are all things he his working on. Spring is the best time to enjoy nature, he said, but now it is impossible not to notice the decline in populations of birds, insects, and native mammals.
“At this time of year dandelions are filling the hungry gap for our bees and other pollinators who have woken from hibernation. They are not ‘untidy’ or a problem if their true value to our biodiversity is seen.”
He said thankfully many local Tidy Towns groups are working magic on public awareness already, but we need to bring everyone on board to appreciate our wildflowers.