PENINSULATHE NEWSLETTER OF THE DONABATE PORTRANE COMMUNITY COUNCIL NEWS www.donabateportranecommunity.com From the Editor With all of the hustle and bustle of Christmas upon us and another year nearly over the time has come for Annual Christmas Tree Sale reflection on what has happened in our community over in aid of Community Council the past year. A great victory for the peninsula with the Donabate Portrane Community Council will be selling decision not to locate the super sewage works in Christmas Trees on 10th and 11th December in the Portrane, the decision to locate the Central Mental grounds of St Patrick’s RC Church. hospital in Portrane, and the decision by Fingal Co. Co to All proceeds will go towards the running costs of the revisit the controversial Local Area Plan. Thankfully the Community Council. Please support your local council. roadworks have tapered off, albeit leaving our roads in a dreadful state, but we can celebrate the opening of 2 new school buildings and an all weather pitch for our community! As the effects of the economic downturn continue to bite CHRISTMAS 2011 we should be shopping local with the shops and businesses on our peninsula thus encouraging local industry and entrepreneurship. A fine example is in our very popular Saturday Donabate food and craft market and the stallholders have decided to have a special Christmas market on Saturday 10th December from 3-6pm to coincide with the ever popular Christmas lights ceremony which starts at 4.30pm with singing from the Lambay singers, so come along and show your community spirit and help make Donabate a special place to be this Christmas time. Donabate Local Area Plan up for review Lobbying by Donabate Portrane Community Council has convinced the county council to go back and look again at the local area (LAP) plan.The current LAP was voted through by councillors despite trenchant opposition from residents in 2006. The community council was never happy with the LAP which includes provision for up to 5,000 housing units. However, it was inevitable that there would be a LAP, with a large amount of housing as part of it, once Fingal County Council controversially pushed through the rezoning of 350 acres in 2004.The community fought hard at the time to stop the rezoning, but was unsuccessful. It followed that efforts to limit the extent of the LAP only had limited success. Now Donabate Portrane Community Council has succeeded in overcoming opposition from the county council to have the LAP revised, with the objective of lowering the number of houses to be built as part of it. The current plan allows for 5,000 new homes to be built in the Donabate Area (not including Portrane) with the potential for a population increase of over 15,000. A radical reduction in the numbers of houses is a key objective of the community council, along with having just one town centre rather than three. The community council would also like to see the distributor road built in phases and any housing development should be phased over 10 to 12 years. Fingal County Council is now seeking submissions to be made from interested parties. The community council is engaging with local interested groups and wants to hear any views or suggestions on the shape of the new LAP. Email your suggestions to [email protected]. The deadline for submissions to Fingal Co. Co is December 15 so submissions to be included in the community council’s overall submission should be emailed before 10th December. For full information on the proposed LAP see the Fingal County Council website at www.fingalcoco.ie. Booklets and a display map are also available in the Donabate community centre and County Hall in Swords. Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony The Donabate switching on of the Christmas lights takes place on Saturday 10th December at the earlier time of 4.30pm in the grounds of St Patrick’s RC church. As usual the Lambay singers will be entertaining us with festive favourites and there may be a surprise visitor dropping in! Thanks go to the Lambay singers and CP Electrical for organising this annual event. The Donabate Christmas market will take place from 3-6pm in the parish hall car park 1 News Round Up DONABATE TOWN CENTRE, DONABATE, CO. DUBLIN Donabate Tidy Towns TEL. 01-843 4344 Tidy Towns has gone into hibernation for the winter, HIGH CLASS TRADITIONAL FAMILY BUTCHERS following yet again another good increase in points in this year’s Tidy Towns competition. More volunteers will be Now taking orders for Christmas needed next year when Spring comes, and if you would like FREE RANGE TURKEYS, FILLETS OF to volunteer please contact Blaithin on [email protected] or 0851264660. HAM, SPICED BEEF, TURKEY CROWNS. Eugene and his staff would like to wish all their cus- tomers a Happy Christmas Trees on Portrane Rd to be felled over safety concerns Donabate Presbyterian church 1st anniversary Fingal Co. Co has consulted with Donabate Tidy Towns st over the felling of over 50 poplar trees on the Portrane rd. The 1 anniversary of the Donabate Presbyterian church was These trees have been in situ for many years and have celebrated recently with an extra large Sunday service followed by reached the end of the normal life span for poplars. The lots of tea and cakes! The church meets every Sunday in the trees have become increasingly unstable over the past few community centre at 10.30am with a “Sunday Special” school for years and last year there were many branches and trees children and promises a warm welcome for all. There are plenty of blown down during the harsh winter with some near misses Christmas events planned including a carol service (open to all) on with cars and pedestrians. As this route is a very busy route Tuesday 20th December at 7.30pm upstairs in the Community with many children walking along it, the decision was Centre. For more detail visit www.donabatepc.org or call Rev Andy reached that the trees should be felled on safety grounds. Carroll on 01-8958833 Next spring the council will consult with the Tidy Towns committee on what should replace these trees. In the meantime there will be other trees and plans planted in and CAROL SERVICE alongside the water pumping station at “The Hand”. The A carol service will be held in hope is that a single Oak sapling planted inside the fencing St. Patricks C. of I. church of the pumping station could become a focal point at the in the Square, Donabate, end of the village when it matures in years to come. on the 18th of December at 10.30 a.m. all wecome Cake sale afterwards in adjacent church hall Waste Water Treatment Plant Extension Project Delayed ESB connections have impacted the Donabate/ Welcome to Fr Joe Portrane/Rush/Lusk WWTP project. Now due to be A warm welcome is extended to Fr Joe Connolly who joins St. commissioned and fully operational by end of March 2012. Patrick’s RC church following our farewell to Fr Paddy Byrne. He Intermittant periods of local disruption will be experienced as joins a very busy and active parish. A record number of children are pipe interconnections are commissioned. due to receive First Holy Communion and be confirmed in 2012 and with the 50th International Eucharistic Congress due to be held in Cleaner Community awards 2011 Dublin in June, 2012 promises to be a busy one for Fr Joe along Congratulations to The Links Estate which won with Fathers Pat Reilly and Pat Hannon the Best Community Environmental Initiative at the recent FCC sponsored Cleaner Community Transition Towns wins sustainability award Awards ceremony. This was the only Donabate The Transition Towns Donabate Portrane (TTDP) group entry to collect an award this year. won a highly commended award in the recent An Taisce Sustainable development awards as part of the National Tidy Towns competition. The Donabate Tidy Towns group GOODWORKS nominated the local sustainability group after the trojan FABRICATION work that the group has done over the past year on the village market, chickenlink group and other skill sharing SERVICES initiatives aimed at making our community more STEEL FABRICATION AND REPAIRS sustainable. • Mobile Welding Services •Handrails • Stainless Steel Safety Rails• Steel Railings • Steel Gates Donabate was represented at the • Repairs Fingal Joint Policing Donabate Committee public meeting held in Portmarnock on 9th Co.Dublin Nov last. Concern was expressed at the impact of reduced • Steel Window Guards Tel: 01-8436939 Garda numbers. It was indicated that Garda resources • Stainless Steel Welding Moblile: 086-8642837 • Steel Balconies Email: [email protected] would be deployed according to need and other district www.goodworksfabricationservices.ie resources could be called upon. see our ad. on donabateportranecommunity.com Swords Gardai 6664700 Annual Church Gate Collection The community council would like to thank all contributors to its annual church gate collection in September. 2 Central Mental Hospital for Portrane Building of the new Central Mental Hospital in Portrane is expected to start next year and will take five years to complete, Minister of State Kathleen Lynch said recently. The junior minister with responsibility for the mental health sector said moving the facility to a greenfield site in Portrane was an important element in her overall plan to move forward at a pace the modernisation of our mental health services. Donabate Portrane Community Council has concerns which it wants dealt with before the move takes place. Chief among those concerns is security for the surrounding community and to address the issue, Donabate Portrane Community Council wants a manned Garda station on the peninsula before the new facility opens.