Community at heart of plans
AN overview of the work of the Community Department of Wexford County Council was presented to the members of the local authority in Enniscorthy at the monthly meeting of the Municipal District Council.
Amanda Byrne, who is head of the Community Development section in County Hall, highlighted to the members that her department provides development services in partnership with the municipal district councils across the county.
The range of committees and organisations that works with her department include: Local Community Development Committee (LCDC); Local Action Group (LAG); Healthy County Committee; Joint Policing Committee; Traveller Interagency Group (TIG); Public Participation Network; Comhairle na NÓG; Revitalising Rural Wexford Committee and Mental Health Committee.
Ms Byrne also highlighted to the members the range of funding schemes and grants that are distributed through her department for various community based projects including burial ground maintenance grants.
She complimented her colleague, Michael Sweeney, for work he has done in documenting open and closed graveyard sites across the county with.
Ms Byrne also said that on March 12 there will be a major community expo event taking place in the Riverside Park Hotel in Enniscorthy.
With regard to community facilities in the county Ms Byrne said there are currently 16 such buildings along with 57 playgrounds and recreation areas.
Among the programmes currently being delivered by the Community section are the Social Inclusion and Activation Programme (SICAP) 2018-2021, Celtic Routes interreg project, and the Ancient Connections interreg project.
Ms Byrne also outlined some of the ‘ targeted interventions’ planned by her department going forward including providing support for the continued operation of the Community Hub in Bridgetown, the Bunclody Project; Courtown Riverchapel Steering Group, Horeswood Community Gain Fund, Pike View Community facilities and the Local Area Community Development plans.
Cllr Jackser Owens thanked Ms Byrne for her presentation and he asked if flower beds and statues would be placed in the new graveyard in Enniscorthy.
‘We have had meetings about this,’ he said. ‘ There should be a seat there as well for people visiting there,’ he added.
Cllr Barbara-Anne Murphy then asked how much funding is available in relation to open and closed graveyards, to which Ms Byrne replied: ‘I think the grant is around €400 so it’s not a huge amount of money but if you got funding every year you could do something.’
With regard to community facilities Cllr Murphy then highlighted that the last census revealed that 12.5 per cent of people living in Bunclody were Eastern European and the Cathaoirleach, Cllr Kathleen Codd-Nolan, asked what are the community facilities.
Ms Byrne said the Cois Barry community house in Rosslare Strand ‘is a real hit’ and added: ‘We want to get the other buildings up to that standard.’
Cllr Codd-Nolan then asked where the funding will come from.
‘ The money will have to come from our own resources,’ replied Ms Byrne.
The Acting District Director, Caroline Godkin, then addressed the councillors on the matter and commented: ‘We would look at supplementing that with other sources when we can.’