Ever read comments on social media ranting about the crazy decisions that get made? Ever wondered about how something changed that makes absolutely no sense? We decided to find out – by attending the full meeting of Meath County Council. Join us on a journey into the corridors of power!

Why?

We’re passionate about making a positive difference, and this starts locally. In December all Local Authorities were required to publish a Climate Action Plan, to show how they’re going to meet their climate change obligations – which aren’t just “nice to have” anymore – they’re now legally-binding.

We’re going to get into the weeds a bit, so here’s a refresher on how “The System” works.

“Your Feedback Is Important To Us”

When Meath County Council has to do something significant, they have to consult with us. Each Local Authority has a different way of doing this. Meath County Council publish a notice on their Consultations website

Often these notices appear months or even years before you’d see anything happening. For example, the consultation for the Trim Road work going on at the moment was published in 2018.

For the Meath Draft Climate Action Plan we attended the consultation workshop, the online webinar, and we asked questions.

Then we read 30 plans from other Local Authorities (with a bit of help from ChatGPT) to see what others were doing. There were actually some pretty good plans out there – shout out to Fingal County Council!

Over the festive period we wrote our response, submitted it online, and waited for the result.

No News Is Not Good News

By pure fluke (when browsing upcoming council agendas, as you do) we noticed that councillors were to vote on the Climate Action Plan at the next council meeting. But what exactly would they be voting on?

Although we made a detailed submission, we don’t get to see what councillors are being asked to vote on. We’re not even informed that a vote is happening.

The only way to see what’s going on is to attend the council meeting. So that’s what we did.

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

To attend a meeting you have to find out when the meeting is happening. The meeting notice was published six days beforehand, so you need to be paying attention.

I received a call to formally confirm my attendance, and due to the location, to give my car registration number to comply with their security rules.

LOL.

When I said that I’d be arriving by bicycle there was a pause. Could I be the first person to not attend by car? Maybe so!

The Council Meeting

On the day of the meeting I cycled out from Navan to Grange on my trusty e-bike. Arriving at the facility, the folks at the gate correctly guessed I was from Navan Cycling Initiative. I wonder what gave it away?

The European Commission facility is very impressive, by the way. It’s not a public building, and it’s set back from the road, so you’d hardly notice it. Thankfully there are bike racks – wheelbender-style unfortunately, but you can’t have everything. Although you can have acres of tarmac’d space for hundreds of car-parking spaces so … ?

Having only met a handful of councillors, it was actually good to see everyone and chat in person before the meeting started.

Inside the meeting, members of the public are reminded that they’re observers only, and can’t participate in the meeting in any way. Does rolling eyes count as participation? Asking for a friend.

The meeting itself is very structured and formal. And it starts with a prayer.

There’s a couple of hours before the Climate Action Plan is up for discussion. I won’t bore you (!) with the details, but I can tell you that there’s no love lost for Uisce Éireann, and pressing the microphone-on button is a skill that only some Councillors have fully mastered.

Eventually the climate action plan is up for discussion.

Agenda Item 5.3. Climate Action and Environment

We “receive a presentation” from Meath County Council officials. The terminology around the meetings is so quirky. Councillors “call on” the officials to take action. There’s lots of “commending”. We proceed.

“In accordance with Section 6 of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development
(Amendment) Act 2021, to approve Meath County Council’s Climate Action Plan 2024 – 2029″

We’re informed about all the consultations, webinars and engagement. Twenty-five people attended the various sessions. This was phrased as a positive. There are 170,594 people aged 15 years and over (Census 2022) so 25 people are 0.015% of the population.

Let me rephrase that. 99.985% of adults in Meath didn’t engage with this consultation.

Now it was time for the Councillors to say their piece.

It was very apparent which Councillors had read the plan, and which had simply “received the presentation” and had something on their mind.

This was the first really jarring realisation. Councillors vote on plans that they haven’t read. You’d imagine that this is the basics of the job.

But you’d be wrong.

So we listen to Councillors “commending” the officials on a job well done. In amongst this are salient points from some Councillors:

• There is only one action regarding active travel in the 99-page five-year plan. How can we believe in a plan for active travel to reduce emissions based on only this?
• Active Travel funding mainly comes from the National Transport Authority (NTA) who have a detailed strategy for the Greater Dublin Area, which contains Meath. Why isn’t this strategy referenced?
• The “Guidance for Local Authority Climate Action Plans” specifically states that actions be SMART – Specific, Measurable, Assigned,Realistic,Time-bound. In terms of transport, and specifically active travel, the draft Climate Action Plan doesn’t provide actions with timelines, measurable milestones or responsibilities, and therefore it isn’t possible to evaluate the success or failure of the plan

One Councillor suggests that it’s not the purpose of the plan to be prescriptive and have “specific actions”. Fair play, it’s not easy to be brave enough to take a position that’s completely opposite to government guidance and common sense. And for the Councillor who had their little rant about the price of diesel, we all welcomed the light relief, thank you.

In the end, the Councillors vote unanimously to adopt the plan.

Here’s the plan for active travel:

No.	Action	Adaptation/Mitigation	Tracking Measure	Timeframe
BET16	Increase active travel usage in town centres through improved sustainable active travel proposals and an enhanced pedestrian and public realm environment.	Mitigation	No. of schemes completed, or length of scheme completed.	Annual to 2029

Yes, that’s all of it.

To Conclude

In February this plan will be formally approved by the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications. We will then presumably wait for the annual review, to find out how many schemes (that quirky terminology again!) are complete. Or the length of the scheme. And we’ll cross our fingers and hope that there’s a 51% drop in transport emissions in the next six years.

Or we can do something else.

Get involved with Navan Cycling Initiative, and help us put pressure on Councillors to actually read the reports they’re being asked to vote on, and to remind Local Authority officials that we expect them to produce plans that give us confidence that they intend to meet their legal obligations.

And Finally

This June there are local elections, where you get to vote for Councillors. If you’re speaking with a Councillor who’s looking for your vote, ask them about the last submission they made on a consultation. Ask them about the last plan published by the local authority. Listen to their answer very carefully, and vote accordingly. Practice your skeptical face. Here’s mine, about to cycle home – enjoy!