Sustainable Skerries have been engaged with Fingal County Council on the allotments project since January and our aim was to have them up and running from May. However, a problem has arisen in relation to vehicle access and egress from the field. We were hoping to have this rectified by now, but due to staff shortages in Fingal County Council, this has not been possible.Fingal County Council are very supportive, and want this project to go ahead.
Sustainable Skerries is continuing discussions with Fingal Co Co in order to get the access issue resolved. We will be pressing for as early an availability date as possible but realistically at this stage it looks like it will be June/July at the earliest before we can take possession.
Apologies for this, but the matter of vehicle access/egress is outside of our control.
We will keep you updated on developments. You can email us on sustskerries@yahoo.ie if you have any further queries.
What is your vision for the town and surrounds of Skerries in 20 years time.
What will it look like?, what will it sound like?, will it have more or less cars?, will it have electricity supply cuts or will we have our own resilient local power grid? What will we be eating?, will we be growing our own food from our back gardens and allotments or buying expensive GM food transported from the other side of the world?
What will our schools look like? how will our children go to school in the morning?. Will we see more trees, edible gardens and Community gardens?.
What do you think? What would you like to see?
Comment here, or come along to the next Sustainable Skerries meeting at 8pm Thursday 20th May in the Skerries Mills. We will be having an open meeting were everyone can contribute as much or as little as they like in a relaxed informal setting.
The second public awareness meeting of Sustainable Skerries went very well. Even though the weather was not the best, the meeting was well attended with a good cross-section of Skerries represented. Also attending were Trevor Sargent TD, Senator Brendan Ryan and Councillor Ciaran Byrne.
The subject of the evening was Food and Water for Skerries, and how Peak oil and Climate Change will effect our security of supply. The evening opened with the showing of a short video entitled “Deconstructing Dinner” from Cultivate.ie. This was followed by a short presentation with the subject line “Exploring Food Miles and Water Security, What does it mean for Skerries”. We then had a very constructive breakout session with a lot of lively, constructive and it has to be said, good humoured debate.
The meeting resulted in a lot of very good feedback from those in attendance. A lot of good ideas about how we can make our town more resilient and better prepared for the Post Peak Oil economy. The next meeting is scheduled for Thursday 13th May at 8pm.
We would like to thank the Teachers and Staff of St Patricks Senior National School for the use of their school hall.
The next public awareness meeting of Sustainable Skerries will take place on Thursday 25th March in St. Patricks Senior National School. Entitled “Exploring Food Miles”. We will show a short film on food miles and how this relates to Skerries in a practical way. We’ll then discuss how Skerries can become more resilient in a post peak oil world. Everyone is welcome.
The inaugural meeting of the Skerries GIY group was a roaring success. There were over sixty people packed into the cafe area of the Skerries Mills. We recieved support from the neighbouring GIY group in Balbriggan. We also had a guest horticulturalist from the nearby Ardgillan Castle explaining the basics of sowing seeds and transplanting. We were also very pleased to welcome Trevor Sargent, Minister for Food & Horticulture, to this inaugural GIY meeting as a guest speaker.
Skerries GIY also publisiced the new allotments which will be available from May this year, and are located just past Downside on the road to the golf club, within easy walking distance of the town. Next meeting of Skerries GIY is on Monday 8th March at 8pm in Joe Mays. Everyone welcome
Wednesday 6th of January saw the first event in the Sustainable Skerries public awareness campaign which will run for the next few months. The awareness meeting was held in St Patricks Senior School, and was very well attended by a broad cross-section of Skerries people. We were also pleased to welcome some of our local politicans.
The evening kicked off with a showing of the “Power of Community” video from “Cultivate”, ( www.cultivate.ie ), followed by a 15 minute presentation on Peak Oil and Climate Change.
Mr Tom Hussey, Fingal Co Co parks Superintendant gave us an update on the allotments and some of the logistical problems involved. He was very positive in his approach and certainly gave us all the feeling that he was 100% behind the project.
Our next Awareness Meeting will take place on Thursday 25th March at 8pm, at St Patricks Senior National School. The topic up for discussion will be Food issues for Skerries in a Post Peak Oil world. It promises to be very relevant to Skerries and should be a lot of fun.
Sustainable Skerries recently met with representatives of Fingal county Council about the possibility of both Community gardens and Allotments in the town. The good news is that the council supports both projects . The bad news is that there is no funding available to get the projects off the ground.
Despite the lack of funding the project is, however, going ahead. We are currently collating a list of all those who would be interested in using the community gardens or who would actively participate in the allotments. If that’s you, leave a comment re. this post, and we’ll add you to the ever growing list, no pun intended.
It was pretty evident from the recent Sustainable Skerries public meeting that gardening and food growing were popular areas of interest. There is a huge appetite for growing food at home, at schools, or in the community allotments.
The Get Ireland Growing webiste aims to give people the resources and know-how they need to grow their own food. So whether it’s planting a few seeds in a tub on the windowsill, or a few rows of spuds in the earth, Get Ireland Growing can help. www.getirelandgrowing.ie
The Guardian has published an interactive guide to making a greener home. Their schematic allows you to navigate through a typical home (give or take a few floors) to maximise the green potential throughout. Take a look here.
Wondering what this whole transition town thing is all about? You’re not the only one. Thankfully, Transition Towns Ireland is here to help. It’s a site for sharing information amongst all the Transition Towns initiatives in Ireland. It’s also plugged into a worldwide network. If you want to educate yourself about Transition Towns in Ireland you should have a browse around their site; it’s right here.
And if you really want to educate yourself about Transition Towns they have provided an exhaustive PDF overview. You can find it here.
Sustainable Skerries 