Skerries Community Association Chairman’s Statement 2006/7

The year just finished has been a hugely successful one for Skerries Community Association and for the people of Skerries. We have had a large number of very significant achievements. This is thanks to great work done by all the members of the SCA sub-committees, affiliated groups, and volunteers working on:

Skerries Community Centre Board of Management
Argillan Board of Management
Mourne View Community Centre
Tidy Towns Committee
Crann Phadraig
Soundwaves
RAS Stage End Committee
Cycling initiative
Green Schools
Primary School Campaign Group
Coast Watch
Skerries Community CCTV Consortium
Skerries Tourism
Skerries Traffic Monitoring Committee

I’d like briefly to highlight a few of our achievements.

Skerries was winner of the prestigious annual Pride of Place competition. This annual all-island competition is now in its fourth year. Its aim is to recognise improvements made by local communities to create a better place in which to live.  In their winning citation, the judges described Skerries as a town whose hallmarks are partnership and inclusion. The judges were also impressed with the way the community and local authority work together for the public good.

The winning of this award can be attributed to all the volunteers in Skerries and to officials of Fingal County Council who supported our entry. The following groups came together to share in our “pride of place”: Skerries Sailing Club, Mourne View Community Centre, Skerries Mills, Skerries Chamber of Commerce, Skerries Community Centre, Prosper Fingal, Tidy Towns Committee, RNLI Group, Skerries Historical Society, Crann Phadraig, and our local political representatives Jim Glennon TD, Counsellor Ciaran Byrne, and the Cathaoirleach of Fingal County Council, Joe Corr.

Skerries Tidy Towns had a tremendous year in 2006 winning:

• 1st  Prize in  Dublin County and City
• 1st prize in the Eastern Region  (the country is divided into 5 Regions)
• The shop in the Square 'Out of the Blue' won the best shop front in the Eastern Region.
• Skerries also got a Gold medal - this is given where the town achieves marks within 15 of the Overall winner.

In both May 2006 & 2007, Skerries hosted the last stage of the FBD Insurance Rás and it was great to see such a big turnout on behalf of the community to cheer on the competitors and to enjoy the street entertainment beforehand. This is very much part of the SCA objective to encourage cycling in the town and to campaign for more cycling paths in the town and environs. Fingal Council has been very supportive in all aspects of this project. This year the Rás has also afforded us the opportunity to forge links with the people Newcastle, County Down, the hosts to the penultimate stage.
 
The third and extended Skerries Soundwaves festival took place in September and was the best to-date, setting the bar very high for Soundwaves 2007, which will be in September again this year. Skerries Soundwaves won the Fingal County Council Community Group of the Year Award in the Arts category. The Sharing our Rhymes project is designed to further integration and shared understanding in our community.

On the planning front we made submissions in relation to both the draft ST1 and Hacketstown local area plans (LAPs). We were in favour of a high quality science and technology park for Skerries but agreed with the majority of councillors who voted against the residential component, which would have been isolated from the rest of the town, would have had access issues, and could have had major implications for further residential development south of the railway line. 

We continue to lobby for the needs of our residents who use the road and rail network on a regular basis. We will continue discussions with Iarnrod Eireann in relation to improvement of services and we also continue to make the case for road improvements in access to M1 via both Lissenhall and Balbriggan.

The inaugural Jim Quigley Volunteer of the Year Award took place at last year’s AGM. The late Jim Quigley was a model of what a community volunteer can achieve and we have him to thank in the main for the building of the Skerries Community Centre. At this year’s AGM the second Volunteer of Year Award will take place.

The Community Centre has now got additional parking spaces for members and the drive-in entrance will be developed to provide better and safer car and pedestrian access.

We together with others (particularly Trevor Sargent TD) lobbied for repair of Lady’s Stairs and that repair is now underway. We have had beach cleanups, and have helped to facilitate a “walking bus” for children going to school.

Now in its fourth year, Skerries Green Schools has gone from strength to strength.  This year Scoil Réalt na Mara and St Patrick’s Senior School were awarded their Green Flags by An Taisce.  This means that every primary school in the town has achieved this prestigious award for care of the environment.  Our next challenge is to help Skerries Community College to implement this environmental education programme and award scheme to ensure continuity as pupils progress from primary to secondary school.

All the above are all very positive developments. However, Skerries has a looming crisis in places for new school entrants. The Skerries Community Association have been lobbying since 2004 to get a new primary school for Skerries and despite numerous obstacles have made substantial progress as follows:

• Proven school place demand with independently sourced data on Skerries births from 2002 onwards. 
• A site for the new school has been reserved by Fingal County Council near Kelly’s Bay, as well as for new premises for St Michael’s House Special National School.

Fingal Co. Council is now forging ahead with the acquisition of the site and the Co Dublin VEC, who is patron of Skerries Community College, has indicated its willingness to act as patron for this new primary school. Unfortunately, there is currently no “model” for a VEC run primary school.  Until one has been developed and piloted at a new primary school in Diswellstown, Dublin 15, no additional patronage of a primary school by the VEC is currently being allowed by the Dept. of Education. The SCA are campaigning on this important schooling issue and are seeking to provide solutions that will allow the school to be built as soon as possible.

A youth club has been established in the Mourne View Community Centre, in collaboration with Foroige, who have over 420 active clubs in operation all over Ireland. However, due to problems obtaining a suitable site closer to the centre of the town at a time convenient for club members and volunteers we have not as yet been able to set up a second youth club as planned in Skerries. We will continue to do everything we can to set up this second club.

Please visit our website www.skerriesca.com which we use as a means of communicating with residents on many issues that affect the town. We have over 200 residents on our email list, which we use to provide information on a range of issues and events of local interest including road closures, concerts, sporting events etc. Any Skerries resident is welcome to be included on the email list by registering at the website.

I have completed my year as Chairman. It was an honour to serve the SCA in this capacity. Although I am stepping down as Chairman I will continue as a director of the board. I would like to pay tribute to the Board of Directors, who work as a very cohesive team to provide prioritised delivery of projects based on a strategic plan that we agree at the start of each year. I have no doubt that the SCA will continue delivering on making Skerries an even better place to live in 2007/8. I would like to thank all the hard-working and dedicated directors and volunteers for all their efforts in delivering on our activities. However, I should add that we do need additional volunteers if we are to make progress on all the tasks that we have set ourselves and not just those on the prioritised list.

Many thanks to Alison Macduff who will continue as director and Secretary of Skerries Community Association.  I would also like to thank those who have resigned over the last 12 months from the SCA Board of Directors (Jack McGuinness, David Wilde, Aoife McGuire, Paul Bailey) and from the Community Centre Board of Management (Kitty Tyndall, Bernard McNally) for their valued contributions. Lastly, my thanks to Fingal County Council, elected Councillors and TDs for their continued support for Skerries.

Larry Lacey
May 2007