Civic leaders in Kilkenny have launched a plan which aims to help the area reduce carbon emissions by more than half by 2030 and make the city and county more liveable and sustainable.
'Full Forward Kilkenny 2030' is designed to act as a "guiding principle" for what the area will be like to live, work and visit by the end of the decade, when more people will be calling Kilkenny home and more jobs will be in place.
With the current County Development Plan aiming for 4,649 new houses and 2,600 new jobs in the coming seven years, Full Forward Kilkenny 2030 was put together to support the goals of business, local authorities, Government, and the public in enhancing experiences across seven key pillars: climate, community, jobs, heritage, inclusion, health, and creativity.
They hope their plan will become a template for other regions of the country to follow in the journey towards reducing carbon footprint and improving sustainability and that Kilkenny will be a "testbed" for the implementation of carbon reduction measures.
As part of Full Forward Kilkenny 2030, Kilkenny is acting as the lead authority in the Eastern Region for a Public Lighting Efficiency Project, with Kilkenny managing this for eight other counties.
"We're going to replace all our bulbs with LED bulbs, so that will reduce our emissions by almost 50% in the public lighting system itself," Director of Services with Kilkenny City and County Council Tim Butler explained.
"Another example is that, in partnership with the Office of Public Works, we're putting in flood relief schemes in six locations throughout the county that have been identified as being at risk of flooding on quite a regular basis."
He said that any plans for development must now take all such contingencies into consideration. "The most important thing in this is that we have to make sure that we're conscious of the environment," Mr Butler said.
He said that other measures that will be taken to reduce carbon emissions include cutting car journeys by improving infrastructure to help people walk and cycle to and from school and work, such as using segregated cycle ways; "place-making" which means enhancing individual places to make them attractive to both live and work; managed parking, and more "to demonstrate to the people of Kilkenny and potential investors and visitors to Kilkenny what Kilkenny has to offer and what our plans are up to 2030".
More public transport is also on the cards during the next seven years, both within Kilkenny and connecting the city and county to the rest of the country.
Meanwhile, inclusion is also a key facet of the plan, making Kilkenny more accessible for everybody.
Today's launch of Full Forward Kilkenny 2030 was attended by Paralympic athlete Mary Fitzgerald, who is from Kilkenny and spoke about the importance of this element.
"We see people from so many different backgrounds and cultures and people with various different abilities and strengths so it's important to harness those going forward, get ideas and input from everyone and everyone's perspective so that we can have a Kilkenny that supports everyone's potential," she said.
"On a practical level there's actionable steps like making sure physical accessibility is there for everybody, also I think it's about looking at attitudes as well, how we engage with people from different backgrounds and with different abilities, and also just hearing their perspectives. It's really important to think of inclusion as not just a box-ticking exercise."
Minister of State for Heritage and Electoral Reform and local Green Party TD Malcolm Noonan said that reacting to climate change is one of the most significant challenges faced by everyone in Ireland today.
"Every person and every community has a part to play," he said. "What is clear from Full Forward Kilkenny 2030 and the engagement which has taken place to get us here, is that climate change is front and centre to communities around the country... We can already see the impacts of climate change with flooding and the changing landscape and it is heartening to see the effort being made to make Kilkenny climate-resilient and nature-rich as we look to combat future challenges."
Cathaoirleach of Kilkenny County Council, Michael Doyle, said the plan is a recognition of "the need to continue to improve our services so that Kilkenny remains a location of choice for so many" and will help create a "future-ready, citizen-centric city and county where everyone feels welcomed and valued".
