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Chairperson’s Report
Skerries Community Association (SCA) AGM 23rd July 2009
The SCA, through its board of directors and its subcommittees and affiliated groups, has been involved in many projects over the last 12 months. While reporting on the most significant of those tonight, we are of course aware that there are lots of other important activities going on in the community which have benefitted from direct or indirect SCA inputs. We had some successes and some disappointments.
Skerries Community Centre and the Old School as part of it, are run by the Community Centre Board of Management, on behalf of the SCA. Having finished the new reception area in the Community Centre, the attention last year has shifted to the Old School and its refurbishment. The next big step will be the replacement of the floor of the Little Theatre and ultimately, the upgrading of that space into a state-of-the art theatre with retractable seating, while remaining a multi-purpose space for all of the community.
Skerries Cycling Initiative (SCI) received a highly encouraging consultant’s report, funded by Fingal County Council, on the possibilities of making Skerries into a model cycling town and has achieved the opening up of Ardgillan Park for cyclists after much lobbying.
We were delighted to see Educate Together open the new primary school in Kelly’s Bay last September. We had lobbied long and hard for a new primary school since 2004 and it was great to see this distant dream become a reality.
Sadly, the proposed community swimming pool in the Ballast Pit became a victim of economic circumstances and its transfer to Balrothery in early April of this year caused great disappointment to the Northeast Fingal Swimming Pool Association. This group had lobbied for sixteen years to secure the pool for Skerries.
Skerries Youth Club made a number of attempts to get a club going, but the absence of a dedicated venue, has been a problem. SCA directors have also supported the Mourne Youth Club over the past year.
Our joint venture with Transition Year students of Skerries Community College ran for a second year with 26 students devising and carrying out community projects. We would like to thank the Community College for agreeing to let us run this programme with their students.
We are very glad to have provided initial support for the excellent “Adopt a Beach” scheme which was recently set up by Skerries News. A core part of our philosophy is to help new groups and their projects to get up and running in the community.
Having announced the idea of Skerries as a Transition Town at last year’s AGM, we are delighted to report that Sustainable Skerries Transition Town Initiative has been launched successfully. A number of new groups are now exploring ways to advance that cause.
Crann Phádraig continues to assist with various initiatives including the Green Schools programme and Guerrilla Gardeners. Its nursery is flourishing. Crann Padraig personnel continue to work with the community plantation at Turvey and to participate in environmental works.
Community Celebrations - Celebrating together strengthens the fibres that hold communities together. We are very lucky in Skerries in this regard. The SCA has organised two very successful public celebrations:
Skerries Tidy Towns during 2008 once again brought many accolades to the town. Skerries was once again the Regional and County winner for Dublin and a Gold Medal winner in the National Tidy Towns competition. Skerries also claimed many awards in the Fingal County Council Cleaner Communities Competition with many of our businesses and private residences winning awards.
While we have seen the initiation of a number of new subcommittees over the past few years, we have to report today the winding up of Skerries Tourism. We want to take this opportunity to thank all those involved for their work over the years. Their last act was the installation of the “Percy French” bench on Red Island, in co-operation with Skerries Tidy Towns. Their excellent website was handed over to Taste of Skerries, a new group promoting tourism in the town.
Forging links with all groups in the town and maintaining communications with all who live here is part of our vision. The SCA Email news flashes have been very successful in achieving this. To date, we have over 500 names on the mailing list. About 600 messages, dealing with transport notices, county council information and notices of local events and endeavours went out in the last 12 months.
Other activities included:
Recognising the contribution of volunteers is essential. To that end, the SCA have initiated the Jim Quigley award, the latest recipient of which will be unveiled later today. It was rewarding in turn to see the work of community groups in Skerries recognised by Fingal County Council. Thus, we are proud to report that last November, Skerries Tidy Towns achieved first place at the Community Group of the Year awards, with the SCA winning a second and INFO Centre for Integration coming third. A special award was given to Mourne Estate Residents Management Association (MERMA) for their contribution in Pride of Place.
This is an opportune time to thank all the volunteers involved in the SCA and its subcommittees. In particular I want to thank the directors of the SCA for their commitment and hard work and for their great team spirit. We are delighted to have been able to co-opt four new directors to the board last year, namely John Coleman, Berniann Condon, Hazel Langan and Myriam Morgan.
We are grateful to the following long serving directors, who will not stand for re-election today: Larry Lacey, Michael Johnston, Alison Macduff and Chantelle Maritz. Each of you made a great contribution to the board, the association and to Skerries. We wish you all the best and miss you already!
I also want to thank outgoing local representatives for their contribution and to congratulate the new councillors on their election. We look forward to working with you in the future.
Priorities for the next year include:
Thank you.
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