The "Kildare" section needs to be split in two - North and South

Emme

The "Kildare" sections needs to be split in two - North and South. Most posts seem to cover North Kildare issues and some of them could be considered Dublin issues. I'm from South Kildare - I live near the Carlow border. There are very few threads on South Kildare issues here.

South Kildare might as well be a different planet from North Kildare because of poverty, unemployment and lack of services. I think these should be discussed here.

Towns like Athy and Castledermot have completely different issues to towns like Naas, Newbridge or Sallins. Kilcock might as well be in Dublin but if it's geographically in North Kildare fair enough.

bduffy

Emme wrote: »

South Kildare might as well be a different planet from North Kildare because of poverty, unemployment and lack of services. I think these should be discussed here.

Towns like Athy and Castledermot have completely different issues to towns like Naas, Newbridge or Sallins. Kilcock might as well be in Dublin but if it's geographically in North Kildare fair enough.

I think this is a fair point. The same could be argued for West Wicklow.....the poor sister of the East (Commuter belt of Bray/Greystones and even Arklow......).
Maybe the electoral boundaries would apply or could that open another can of worms?

L1011

Oddly enough, the far north of the county has close to zero council services (two playgrounds, no leisure facilities, no skateparks, no recycling facilities, etc etc) despite paying lots of the rates. The mid county towns are the ones with services

brian_t

Emme wrote: »

There are very few threads on South Kildare issues here.

If posters from S Kildare can't be bothered to start threads about issues pertinent to themselves in the Kildare forum, why do you think they will in a S Kildare sub-forum.

uck51js9zml2yt

The only reason to justify a separate forum would be huge amounts of posts for SK. By your own admission, they are few and far between.

Emme

brian_t wrote: »

If posters from S Kildare can't be bothered to start threads about issues pertinent to themselves in the Kildare forum, why do you think they will in a S Kildare sub-forum.

Perhaps they feel intimidated by the North Kildare posters. There was a post a few years ago about Athy. People in south Kildare feel forgotten and your attitude sums up why.

L1011

Emme wrote: »

Perhaps they feel intimidated by the North Kildare posters. There was a post a few years ago about Athy. People in south Kildare feel forgotten and your attitude sums up why.

I doubt that's the case.

If you want more threads for South Kildare, post them. A tiny subforum is going to be even deader.

Orion

Completely agree with L1011 here. South Kildare people don't post so why would a new forum suddenly cause them to? Either way the place to request a new forum is here. It needs enough votes there to even be considered.

annie.t

Maybe we could start "Athy/Castledermot/... chat thread" or something similar and see how we get on?
I moved to Athy a year and a half ago and would be interested. Anyone else?

Lex Luthor

Emme wrote: »

Perhaps they feel intimidated by the North Kildare posters. There was a post a few years ago about Athy. People in south Kildare feel forgotten and your attitude sums up why.

That's a bit unfair to be honest

If the OP by their own admission are saying there are few & far posts from SK users, then its up to them to start one. I don't see this forum being bombarded by posts from NK that if a new SK post was to go up it would end up at the bottom of the screen within a day

n97 mini

What harm can it do?

N and S Kildare feel essentially like two different counties lumped together anyway.

Badly Drunk Boy

Emme wrote: »

Perhaps they feel intimidated by the North Kildare posters. There was a post a few years ago about Athy. People in south Kildare feel forgotten and your attitude sums up why.

Yeah, I find the Dub accents in some of the posts can be intimidating to me, anyway.

I know what you mean but as others have said, just try posting and see if you get any interest. And if there was a split, where's the border? I reckon I'd be in the north of south Kildare. And I think I'd prefer that to being in the south of north Kildare.

Start an Athy/Castledermot thread, as has been suggested. I might even post in it myself because I sit beside somebody from Castledermot in work all day so I can get her input.

n97 mini

Badly Drunk Boy wrote: »

Yeah, I find the Dub accents in some of the posts can be intimidating to me, anyway.

I know what you mean but as others have said, just try posting and see if you get any interest. And if there was a split, where's the border? I reckon I'd be in the north of south Kildare. And I think I'd prefer that to being in the south of north Kildare.

Start an Athy/Castledermot thread, as has been suggested. I might even post in it myself because I sit beside somebody from Castledermot in work all day so I can get her input.

The county is already split in two for electoral purposes.

L1011

n97 mini wrote: »

The county is already split in two for electoral purposes.

With some thrown in to Laois for the hell of it

Emme

Badly Drunk Boy wrote: »

Yeah, I find the Dub accents in some of the posts can be intimidating to me, anyway.

I know what you mean but as others have said, just try posting and see if you get any interest. And if there was a split, where's the border? I reckon I'd be in the north of south Kildare. And I think I'd prefer that to being in the south of north Kildare.

Start an Athy/Castledermot thread, as has been suggested. I might even post in it myself because I sit beside somebody from Castledermot in work all day so I can get her input.

It has nothing to do with Dub accents or any kind of accent. There are plenty of Dubs living in South Kildare.

brian_t

Emme wrote: »

Perhaps they feel intimidated by the North Kildare posters. There was a post a few years ago about Athy. People in south Kildare feel forgotten and your attitude sums up why.

There was a thread about Athy last July and before that in December 2015.

Both times the place was rubbished by you.

I don't understand how posters from there would feel intimidated by the North Kildare posters.

Emme

brian_t wrote: »

There was a thread about Athy last July and before that in December 2015.

Both times the place was rubbished by you.

I don't understand how posters from there would feel intimidated by the North Kildare posters.

"Rubbished" :rolleyes:

More like raising awareness of issues that affect a small south Kildare town. Have you been to Athy or driven through Athy recently? Have you stopped to fill your car with very expensive fuel - €1.40 a litre for petrol the last time I looked. If you live in the area have you or has anyone you know been burgled?

If you live in the Athy area you are more than welcome to refute anything I said. Justify the high cost of fuel and other amenities that are charged at a premium because there is nothing else in the area.

Buffman

Ye, I think this thread seems to be more about the 'Urban-Rural divide' that is an issue across the country. It's more apparent in the likes of the Kildare, Wicklow, Meath, and Westmeath commuter belts.

There are other areas of Kildare that would also fall into the OP's 'criteria', mainly North West Kildare. I don't think breaking up the forums based on population density would achieve anything, and suspect a South Kildare forum would make the Leitrim forum look busy. (No offence Leitrim:))

Maybe, as others have suggested, start a thread on the issues and see what the interest is like.

Orion

Buffman wrote: »

(No offence Leitrim:))

Noone from Leitrim would see it to be offended anyway

brian_t

Emme wrote: »

"Rubbished" :rolleyes:

More like raising awareness of issues that affect a small south Kildare town. Have you been to Athy or driven through Athy recently? Have you stopped to fill your car with very expensive fuel - €1.40 a litre for petrol the last time I looked. If you live in the area have you or has anyone you know been burgled?

If you live in the Athy area you are more than welcome to refute anything I said. Justify the high cost of fuel and other amenities that are charged at a premium because there is nothing else in the area.

I'm not argueing with your views of Athy (you were quite uncomplementary about the place). I'm just pointing out that you were more than happy to express your views in this forum.

I don't think anyone from the south of the county is intimidated by posters who in live in the north.

ongarboy

In the Limerick forum, they did the exact opposite. The merged the Limerick county and Limerick city forums as it was felt that threads specifically about county or rural Limerick matters were not getting any traffic/views as most viewers just went straight for the city forum. Many rural dwellers worked, studied, socialised, shopped in the city so city threads naturally interested them as well. Whereas now, if a thread pops up, it gets more attention as it will be seen by all Limerick viewers - whether they choose to read or contribute to the thread is up to them however.

If the precedent on this forum has been for infrequent threads or posts about events, news, issues associated with South Kildare, then I'd say it would even go more infrequent if such threads were tucked away in a sub South Kildare forum with less of an audience to notice them.

PS, viewers will only read threads with titles that interest them. eg the price of turf in Athy vs Castledermot thread will not entice me to click on it regardless of whether it's in After Hours (or maybe it will!:D) or Kildare

Moonbeam

I don't think it needs to be split into North and South . I would not even know where one stops and the other begins !
If you were going to split it based on demand we could nearly have a Maynooth forum and then a rest of Kildare forum .

lucernarian

I think it would be a terrible idea.

Many of the regional forums aren't so busy since they were split on a county-by-county basis. (In that the sum of posting in county forums is less than the regional ones they replaced*)

I really don't get a sense of why people would be intimidated, its a message board for crying out loud.

sadie06

Hi Emme,

I'm not really a thread starter myself, so I hope you won't take offence at my point.

Forums of course rely on those that respond to threads for vibrancy, but they rely more heavily on those that start threads to maintain energy and encourage frequent visits by boards members.

The thread you created advising of the need for a separate forum for South Kildare is the first thread you have ever created in the Kildare forum.

Would you be a thread starter in a new forum? Again, I'm more of a responder myself, so not a criticism, more of a point.

Joe Public

L1011 wrote: »

Oddly enough, the far north of the county has close to zero council services (two playgrounds, no leisure facilities, no skateparks, no recycling facilities, etc etc) despite paying lots of the rates. The mid county towns are the ones with services

As part of the etc etc - no public swimming pool in North Kildare, no cinema, no new bridges over the Liffey

Bulk of the rates are going south!

KildareBlue

A thread for the south of the county is the way to go. In the Wexford forum, for instance, there is a thread for Enniscorthy that is 255 pages long after six years.

I'd imagine it would be difficult to generate that level of discussion for Athy or Castledermot, but adding the likes of Kildare, Monasterevan and even Newbridge to the equation could entice people to post more regularly.

n97 mini

L1011 wrote: »

Oddly enough, the far north of the county has close to zero council services (two playgrounds, no leisure facilities, no skateparks, no recycling facilities, etc etc) despite paying lots of the rates. The mid county towns are the ones with services

Oddly enough I have the feeling the recent Leixlip and Celbridge Area Plans (3,000 and 4,000 houses respectively) are just to boost the LPT flake of North Kildare. All that extra cash and no plans to spend it locally...

bduffy

Joe Public wrote: »

As part of the etc etc - no public swimming pool in North Kildare, no cinema, no new bridges over the Liffey

Bulk of the rates are going south!

Here's your chance to have your opinion heard by KCC on playgrounds: https://docs.google.com/a/dit.ie/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfGgnd8nKJY5-yqVgVZuWm4wuBeisgqlhN7qnTMZlWPSl_a1g/viewform?embedded=true

Joe Public

bduffy wrote: »

Here's your chance to have your opinion heard by KCC on playgrounds: https://docs.google.com/a/dit.ie/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfGgnd8nKJY5-yqVgVZuWm4wuBeisgqlhN7qnTMZlWPSl_a1g/viewform?embedded=true

That's what the census is for, it's a bit of a cop out to be doing surveys just for the sake of it and then say they had a poor response from wherever so no need for extra playgrounds.

bduffy

Joe Public wrote: »

That's what the census is for, it's a bit of a cop out to be doing surveys just for the sake of it and then say they had a poor response from wherever so no need for extra playgrounds.

As far as I understand the census collects facts, but a survey would collect opinions and ideas. A decision maker/committee in KCC has plenty of facts but need some sort of consultation before they put a plan in place (or so I'd hope).
They say decisions are made by people who turn up, so we can engage or ignore....I sent in my thoughts....at least it's on record now.
The eternal optimist....

Joe Public

bduffy wrote: »

As far as I understand the census collects facts, but a survey would collect opinions and ideas. A decision maker/committee in KCC has plenty of facts but need some sort of consultation before they put a plan in place (or so I'd hope).
They say decisions are made by people who turn up, so we can engage or ignore....I sent in my thoughts....at least it's on record now.
The eternal optimist....

When I read through the survey I get the feeling they are looking for reasons why not to provide playgrounds, maybe it's just me