Tidy Village Committee report 2018

BALROTHERY TIDY VILLAGE – TIDY TOWNS COMMITTEE COMPETITION REPORT 2018

A Tidy Towns Meeting will be held in the Heritage Centre on Tuesday 2nd October starting at 8pm.   All are welcome it should prove to be interesting. We really look forward to meeting you there.

The results of this year’s competition saw Balrothery increase by 7 marks over eight categories.  This may not appear to be many put in context we have increased our score by 30 in the past 3 years.

Listowel  this year’s winner increased their mark by 10 this year and did not score any marks for Landscaping & Open Spaces category.

Once again we have achieved success with some very relevant observations given by the Adjudicator.

The Report is on the site if you wish to read it.  Without the hard work of the dedicated volunteers and the support from the Community Association, the school children and teachers, clubs and all our sponsors and local businesses we would not have achieved this success.  Working with Fingal County Council is key to progressing projects. By times this can take much longer than you would anticipate but we get there in the end. It proves that community participation and co-operation is the key to success and I am pleased to report this has grown considerably in the last year.  Going forward there are more projects to progress and continuation of the maintenance programme.

Well done to all the areas mentioned in the report and a special welcome to our newest residents in Darcystown Close they have a lot to offer us look forward to working with you all in the future.

The following are some of the new and ongoing Projects :

Native Tree Train in Glebe Park – This is such an exciting and important project.  Fingal County Council are with us in driving this forward.  It is expected that these will be planted in October/November.  The 5th and 6th year students in the school will be involved in this as well as anyone else who wishes to do so.

Community Garden – An orchard of 13 mixed fruit trees was planted behind the Community with resulting fruit this Autumn.  The next part of the garden is a work in progress.

Wild Flower planting areas  – Further areas for this planting are being considered in the village. We are working with Fingal County Council Operations Department on this and all other projects.

Beech Hedge Planting – There will be beech hedging planted at the north entrance to screen off the back of the houses where the trees were removed and on the green at Tudor Hamlet along the back of those houses.  The beech hedging planted in Rosepark will be revised because we lost quite a few during the drought.

Playground Area in Glebe Park – The contractor has been assigned to this following public tender by Fingal County Council and it is expected that we will see the commencement of this project in the near future.  This is a slow brewing project which requires a lot of components to fit together before it actually shows its exciting face.

Permanent home for the Britton Man – This unique granit sculpture was presented to Balrothery Twinning Towns in 2017 and since then he has resided in the Heritage Centre.  It is planned to work with the Twinning group to construct a display area in recognition of our close ties with Landen in Brittany and give this man a permanent home.

Sustainability – Doing more with less – Well done to our champions the school children and teachers and Tommy  in their efforts on this very important item. Their Green and Biodiversity flags fly proud as proof of their efforts and were noted by Adjudicator.  We plan to continue our relationship with them going forward.

Suggestions for consideration from the Adjudicator following his visit:

• Approach Fingal County Council regarding new heritage type lighting for the village.
• Identify key areas in the village for new tree planting.
• Grass area at Traffic Triangle on Old Coach Road be considered for planting.
• Planting of summer flowers on bank outside Balruddery Woods and Knightswood.
• Doing a Habitat Survey of Balrothery.
• Pollinators for Village to support bee hive.
• Focus on biodiversity in Park and Community Garden.
• Bins at Graveyard need attention consider organic compost bin.
• Old tubs and containers left in corner of Graveyard unsightly.
• Litter on Darcystown Road approaching village needs attention.
• Bank at Balrothery Woods a litter trap needs attention.
• Dog dirt on pavements especially near school noted.
• Issue of lack of foothpath connectivity in the village and surrounds noted.

So there you are and people thought that we spent our time looking at soaps on the telly!!!

We aren’t in the habit of shouting everything from the rooftops but the work is still being done on an ongoing basis by VOLUNTEERS who give of their precious time to the place where they live.  That is so precious you could not bottle it. On another note, we have sent in Tidy Towns Observations to Fingal Planning Dept. relating to the proposed development on Old Coach Road Ref: F18A/0489.

Email: [email protected]