As you may have noticed, the car park in the Community Centre is currently getting a long overdue upgrade for health and safety reasons.

Although the Community Centre remains open for business, the car park is closed for the duration of the project. We apologise for any inconvenience that this causes.

Read on for details about the project and some additional (and relevant!) information clarifying the legal relationships between Skerries Community Association Ltd, the Board of Management of the Community Centre and Fingal County Council. All of these were involved in bringing the project to fruition.

The car park upgrade will involve:

• Widening the entrance to accommodate two vehicles at a time and building an entrance ramp
• Improving pedestrian access to the centre by building a path around the perimeter of the car par between the Centre and the Old School
• Resurfacing the section of the car park in front of the Centre including the removal of the concrete path
• Improving drainage and installing ducting
• Improving the visual appearance of the car park by removing railings on small roundabout, display board and rubble in flower bed of Old School.

See the attached drawing for a visual description of all of this.

The cost of the project is approximately 47,000 euro. It will be financed as follows:

• 5,000 euro from All Weather Pitch reserve
• 5,000 euro from Skerries Community Association Ltd reserve
• 37,000 euro from Fingal County Council Capital Budget 2010.

This arrangement for sharing the cost came about for the following reasons:

1. The main community facilities to benefit from the improved car park are the Community Centre and All Weather Pitch, so it is reasonable for these operations to contribute to the cost, at an affordable level.  Both of these facilities are operated by Skerries Community Association under different licence agreements with Fingal County Council. The general management of the Centre is delegated to the Community Centre Board of Management (a subcommittee of Skerries Community Association Ltd). The legal structure of Skerries Community Association is that of a company limited by guarantee. This is the most common legal structure for "not for profit" organisations.
2. The Council owns the Community Centre building (not the Old School which is the property of the SCA), the Car Park, the pitch and all the lands comprising the Town Park. Therefore, as legal owner, it is reasonable and proper that the Council should bear the main cost of maintaining the car park.

The works are being carried out by Larry Kiernan Plant Hire (Balbriggan) under contract to FCC and under the direction of Kevin Halpenny the Parks Superintendent and Parks engineer Ray Conway. They should be finished by mid July.

We want to thank Shay Fanning and Bob Laird of Skerries Community Centre Board of Management, Centre manager Sharon Guinane, Kevin Halpenny and Ray Conway of FCC Parks Department, Martin Sweeney and Garry O’Brien of FCC Transportation Dept and our public representatives, for all their efforts, time and patience on this project since last October. Making this small project happen in such difficult economic times was a small miracle.

Jane Landy
Chair
Skerries Community Association