Independent candidate in the upcoming local elections, Mick Greene has put himself forward for election to Kilkenny Borough Council and he hopes that the electorate will look upon him as an alternative to what has been available up until now.
Mick considers himself a man with strong family values. He also has opinions on how Kilkenny should go forward and move with the times, without losing the inherent beauty and attraction that is its heritage. Mick Greene is looking for votes for being Mick Greene.
Although, he was born and bred in Kilkenny, Mick spent many years in London where he worked in banks such as Barclays and Morgan Stanley in IT. He was a high flyer in the financial world and spent hours watching traders on the floor, quickly becoming a competant private trader himself - which is what he does today. However, this does not take up all his time and apart from canvassing which is also a time-consuming past-time, Mick is taking care of his three children who are all aged under 5!
Independent candidate
Originally from Bennettsbridge, Mick now lives with his wife Nicola and their three children on the Castle Road in the city. He is passionate about Kilkenny and although he has never been involved in politics before and has no political background, he had talked to the Green Party in the past about becoming a member.
“I decided against it. I was told that if I were to join the party that I would be expected to toe the party line and that is not me. I have my own ideas, my own policies and I don’t want to be told how to vote on the council. This is why I want to be a councillor - I want to be able to influence the council with my policies and hopefully I will be elected because of them and I will be representing those who elect me. I am not part of a party as I can’t violate my own beliefs. An independent is one who supports his own policies and I vow to support my own policies regardless of party if it enriches the lives of those living in Kilkenny,” he said.
And the issues that he is standing for are quite simple. They are the everyday issues that effect people living in Kilkenny on a daily basis.
“I am a stay at home Dad. I see that there are little or no facilities for parents and small children in Kilkenny. I would like to see a centre for parents and children established that parents can go to for parenting advice, where children can play safely indoors. These centres are in the UK and they provide a much-needed service to communities. They provide support and advice to parents on issues such as nutrition, health and parenting in general. Kilkenny could really do with some of these facilities in each of the communities. There also needs to be playgrounds in all the communities. The council has gone some way towards providing these but they need to be cared for, maintained and monitored.”
Parking charges
His pet hate is the introduction of on-street parking charges. Mick believes that this charge is a tax on those attempting to enter the city and will ultimately have a detrimental effect on business.
“I have spoken to business people already about this and they have reported the slowest business days ever recorded since the day the parking metres came into operation. At a time, when we are trying to encourage people into the city to shop - the council decides to charge people in order to do so - it is unacceptable and not the way forward. If we have on-street parking charges in order to encourage people not to drive into the city, we need to have alternative methods of getting into the city. The mobility plan proposed by the council is a positive plan of action but it falls short of what Kilkenny needs. They decided that there was no justification for a park and ride facility for the outskirts of the city which is completely justified in my opinion and I have done the research.
“Also the Central Access Scheme (CAS ) which is currently being decided upon by An Bord Pleanala is another pet hate of the Independent candidate.
“If I am elected I will be looking for an alternative to the route. Kilkenny’s unique selling point is its heritage and how intact it is. The CAS will destroy the streetscapes and this is what the experts say. The people don’t want it. From a heritage and business point of view it is economic suicide. Tourism is our biggest industry and we will not be getting visitors to Kilkennyto look at a steel cable bridge . There is no going back when you destroy what was once there. Jobs will also be lost through lack of tourism. What we really need is the ringroad completed and this would go a long way towards improving the traffic flow for our medieval city,” he said.
Economy
Mick is critical of the current government and the way in which they have handled the economy.
“This government has embraced a boom-bust scenario. The good times were really good but the bad times are really bad and when they are bad they hand over power. Brian Cowen’s hands have been on the wheel of our economy for six years and the government has been in power for 12 . The dept of the economic slump is magnified by the policies of the current government for the last 12 years. I believe wholeheartedly that it is Brian Cowen’s fault. Although there is a global recession and we would be in a recession now regardless, but the severity of our situation was preventable and is directly caused by Fianna Fail. There were windfall budgets on the back of the property bubble. It was senseless and everyone knew it had to come to an end - except the government obviously.”
Local business
Mick feels that local business needs to be encouraged and to do this rates need to be charged according to how the business is contributing to the local economy. For example the rates are cheaper if restaurants buys their meat, fish and veg locally.
“A closed business doesn’t pay rates so businesses need to be nurtured so that it remain open for business - maintaining jobs and knock-on trades,” he insists. “Rates should be abolished for two years for new business and then a sliding rate scale should be put in place for up to five years.”
He also called for an analysis to be done to see why are shoppers are travelling outside of Kilkenny for goods and services, ‘and then we should start a drive to encourage these needed businesses to locate in Kilkenny,” he said.
Finally, he will be calling for a new bye-law for Kilkenny if he gets elected to prevent boy racers from having loud exhausts on their cars.
“ The council should be legislating for this rather than trying to deal with each case individually. We have no national legislation on noise pollution but there is an EU directive. We need a bye-law that says that cars in breech of this directive will be fined. It’s done in Scotland and New Zealand and goes some way towards preventing these cars keeping locals awake at night,” he concluded.
