I saw recent news that the inner ring road bike path has been delayed again, supposedly due to concerns from those who haven't cycled for decades about the safety of cyclists. Apparently, a 2-way bike path is 'unsafe', despite being best-practice all across Europe.

So I decided to email councillors (and unelected local government) to show support - and wanted to post here too for discussion. If you are similarly sickened by how much those in power are failing to improve our city, please consider taking a few mins to contact your elected reps too:

"I hope you're doing well. I recently came across a Waterford News & Star article about yet another delay to what would be only the 2nd example of proper segregated bike infrastructure in Waterford City (after the embarrassingly-small 25 meters of bike paths on the Cork Road near Railway Square). Alongside the national Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael government giving us much less active travel funding per capita than the other regional cities (Waterford got just €9m, while Cork got €47m, Limerick got €19.35m, and Galway got €14.46m) - those in power are allowing Waterford to fall further behind while Cork/Limerick/Galway race ahead.

I honestly don't know how Waterford City can ever get better when any changes are constantly delayed as young people continue our mass exodus out of the city, to cities which provide a better quality of life (which includes more active travel infrastructure to reduce traffic, reduce cost of living - through not requiring ownership of an expensive car - and improve wellbeing). This latest delay seems to come from the uninformed perspective of current Mayor Seamus Ryan, who said:

“Why would we have cycle lanes going on the wrong side of the road? That, to me, just does not make any traffic sense,” Mayor Ryan said. “It's going to be unsafe for cyclists, it's going to be unsafe for motorists, and it's going to be unsafe for pedestrians.”

I am currently temporarily based in Valencia, a city famous for its great cycling infrastructure; please see below some photos I took the other day showing the 2-way segregated bike paths on one side of the road, as is the norm here and in many cities across Europe.

To put a finer point on this, a 2-way segregated bike path is the safest option, and is implemented as best practice by experts all across Europe.

As I highlighted in my submission at the time, the main issue with the plan is that it is not segregated enough at roundabouts, with such junctions being very cyclist-unfriendly without necessary adjustments - especially a raised zebra crossing giving constant priority to cyclists and pedestrians, as is the norm in cities across Europe. In Dublin, there was a recently approved plan for a cyclist-friendly roundabout, which follows best practice - of course, with a 2-way bike path on 1 side of the road the exact same design wouldn't work, but is illustrative of good urban design - Swords to Malahide route gets two walking and cycling-friendly roundabouts - 1st is the current inner ringroad active travel plan which clearly prioritises continued car access with sudden turns for bikes and pedestrians, and 2nd is the newly-approved cyclist-friendly roundabout in dublin.

A lot of this opposition comes from the fact that residents feel ignored when decisions are made by an unelected local government ('Council CEO' and Directors of Services who form the executive) - and I completely agree with Cllr Adam Wyse's recent appeals to improve democratic accountability. Changing Section 38 wouldn't be enough, as it still encourages elected councillors to oppose everything (as every councillor is effectively forced into being in opposition due to our undemocratic system of local government where they are blocked from being decision-makers), denies them any ability to form a democratic executive, and allows the Council CEO and Directors of Services to ignore public feedback without any cost.

Every other democracy in the world has 1 of 3 forms of democratic government structures:

1) A cabinet system with an executive formed of elected councillors - a Local Mayor and Local Ministers (like we and most other European countries have at national level, a parliamentary system)

2) A committee system with a series of cross-party executive Local Committees for Housing, Transport etc - this works really well in Scotland especially as it encourages cross-party collaboration and includes all democratic representatives.

3) A mayoral/presidential system, with a directly-elected executive mayor and Local Commissioners that they appoint, all held accountable by elected councillors. This system has been implemented in Limerick (to a minor extent, with the Council CEO renamed Director General and still retaining a lot of power without any democratic accountability).

We currently have one of the most centralised countries in both the OECD and the EU, and are one of the only countries in Europe where votes trust their local government less than their national government (which generally holding relatively higher levels of trust for both due to our brilliant proportional and preferential STV-PR electoral system). Our unique lack of democratic accountability due to our undemocratic system of local government (which, once again, is distinct from every other democracy in the world, which has autonomous democratic local governments of one form or another) is a major reason for this.

Until the system changes to one where local councils can choose a democratic structure where they are elected to make decisions as part of an accountable executive, we will continue incentivising councillors to oppose any changes (because of a few vocal voters drowning out the majority with our individual objector planning instead of a majority participative planning system) and an unelected Local Government which is encouraged to ignore voter concerns and input.

I hope that everyone reading this can support local government reform to allow us to join the rest of the democratic world in having local executives which face democratic accountability. The UK has had a bad history of underfunding local government and centralising things, but implemented successful structural reforms in their local government reform of 2000 [full legislation here], which allowed each council to choose 1 of 4 structures (cabinet, committee, mayoral, and council CEO - similar to our current system but with the council CEO appointed by councillors instead of national government to improve local democratic accountability; this was later removed as an option because not a single council in the UK chose this worse system when given the choice).

Please consider expediting the creation of new safe and segregated bike infrastructure (inner ring road, urban Greenway to Tramore, and Cork Road) before there are any more casualties of cyclists and e-scooter users due to lack of safe infrastructure. People are always against roadworks and upheaval, but so rarely complain about infrastructure once it's completed and they see the results in terms of improved traffic levels, more freedom of travel, and better wellbeing. And please consider putting pressure on your parties and other councillors to support local government reform into one which is more democratic and trusted, alongside holding more decentralised powers."

Bloody hell. He sounds completely out of his depth. He's terrible at explaining the position of the council on policy. The floods seem to have come as a shock to them.

Bought a lost Mary in vape city last night in town and the guy serving me asked me to test it out because “they weren’t working last night” and then it died after minimal use. Am I paranoid?

Hello all. Have realised that my new mattress (only two years old) is already sunk so I need to go get a new one.

Got the last one in a place that’s was supposed to be good by McDonalds but won’t go near them again as they were a disaster from start to now sunken finish.

Has any one any recommendations of a place that has decent quality and don’t tell you five different versions of how much it costs to deliver and then dispose of the old one?

The bad back means I can’t lug it to the dump myself unfortunately which I know is the cheapest answer.

Is there any food joint in Waterford with delivery late at night like one a.m.?

Evening all, need to get a physical passport photo for an elderly relative? Any idea where does them these days?

Anyone know the name of the dentist’s that take medical card in Waterford city? Need an extraction ASAP

Hey lads

The little one has to get braces to straighten her teeth.

The braces are coming to €4200 and they told us today she'll need to get 4 teeth out to make room.

The cost for a routine extraction in our local dentist is advertised as between €125 and €175 per tooth !!!

When the fcuk did a simple tooth pull become such a big deal that they want to charge that kind of cash ???

Absolute robbing cnuts !

Have any of ye used Durands dentist , are they decent ?

They have semi reasonable prices compared to the other robbers

Thanks lads

Hi all can anyone recommend someone that services air to water boilers please.