A NEW DAWN FOR CASTLELYONS

Today should hopefully mark a great day in the community of Castlelyons as we move forward and commence setting up a new Community Council that will include all areas, ages and aspects of Castlelyons, Coolagown and Britway. To come to this point has been a long and arduous road with many obstacles, this effort is for the whole community and should be seen as such, not the desires of any one person.

Since March 2020 these efforts have been relentless, however slow with

Covid restrictions hampering all efforts to move on.

At the outset of this process, the assistance of Avondhu Blackwater Partnership was sought to facilitate this and we are deeply indebted to them for their time and unfailing support. It was also proposed that due diligence should take place, this too was not easy to organise or fund and became a major obstacle in moving forward.

At a meeting in January 2020, Valerie Murphy (Avondhu Blackwater Partnership) suggested we request Jerry Healy,

Solicitor for legal assistance/due diligence.

The following are his observations which were accepted by Avondhu Blackwater Partnership as the way forward.

OBSERVATIONS

‘Dear James,

I am coming back in relation to issues involving the Community Council and the discussions which have taken place in relation to the future of the Community Council. I appreciate that quite some time ago I was asked to put certain points down on paper which might help to move things forward. I have thought a lot about the situation, and I am putting down on paper what comments or suggestions or thoughts that I have. I am only one person. Others may entirely disagree with what I say or think that what I put down is a total waste of time. Everybody is free to form their own opinions. I refer back to my letter of the 11th November, 2019 and also the draft letter which I had prepared on 21st August 2018, that sets out the points that I felt then should be dealt with and which I still feel need to be dealt with.

There are a couple of major points.

NEED FOR COMMUNTIY COUNCIL/COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

There were three hugely positive initiatives which came forward from the community (presumably with encouragement from the Community Council) over the past few months. A) You had the “Festival of Fun” at Hillside Terrace/Kent Terrace; B) You have the group who has started doing the clean-up at the graveyard; C) The parents and children group that are gathering once each week in the Fr. Ferris play area.

The above three positive initiatives were very much out in the public view, but I do understand that a lot of other quiet work has been done behind the scenes during the Covid pandemic for people who have been con

fined to their houses, etc.

The reason I mention the positive developments first is that all of these show that people themselves are willing to get involved if given any bit of encouragement at all.

THE FR. FERRIS FIELD

As far as I am concerned, this is a brilliant facility for the entire community. I don’t have to tell anybody the range of people who use the various facilities and the car park and the various clubs who use the park as a base etc. I do not consider the Fr. Ferris Park a liability; I consider it a colossal community asset. I think that needs to be strongly emphasized.

OTHER COMMUNITY INITIATIVES

I am hoping that if the Community Council put the word out, that any other community initiatives would be welcome, others might have the courage to come forward.

POSSIBLE ROADMAP FOR CASTLELYONS COMMUNTIY COUNCIL IN THE FUTURE

I refer back to my draft letter of the 31st August, 2018 and my letter to you James on the 11th November, 2019, which in a general perhaps long winded way, cover the various points. Could I summarize them here now as follows:

What is the present financial position of the community council? - I think it would be helpful if the following could be dealt with so that people fully understand the situation.

a. What funds do the Community Council have and in what bank accounts? I think copy statements from the bank account/bank accounts should be available. That vouches the figures.

b. Fr. Ferris field: - What

is the debt owing on the Fr. Ferris field? I think the bank statements should be produced to vouch it. What are the repayments which the Community Council are committed to each year?

c. I think that when everybody is talking about the Community Council at present, they are talking about the Fr. Ferris field and the debt on the field. I wonder should there be a “separate committee” established which would take responsibility for the Fr. Ferris field, take responsibility for the debt, take responsibility to fundraise to reduce/clear the debt and take responsibility for the management of the Fr. Ferris field. I don’t mind if the officers of the Community Council are this “separate committee”. I am simply saying that at present my impression is that people are afraid to get involved in the Community Council, because they don’t want to take on the headache of whatever the debt is for the Fr. Ferris field. If there was a separate “field committee” answerable to the Community Council at least then, perhaps that could be handled separately to the ordinary day to day expenses of the Community Council. People might be more willing to come forward and get involved in the Community Council if they thought that they would be just involved in community activities, etc.

d. You may think this idea of a separate Field Committee for the Fr. Ferris field is daft. Where the idea comes from, is from what I have seen local GAA clubs do. I am aware that in Conna, the St. Catherine’s GAA Club have had a separate field committee for years. It is obviously answerable to St. Catherine’s GAA Club. Castlelyons GAA Club have a steering committee

set up to try and manage the development of the purchase and development of the land which was bought. The ordinary club activities are run separately then by the clubs themselves. The focus of the field committee or the steering committee is purely the development. The idea may be right or wrong, I am simply saying it has been done in other similar circumstances. I accept that even if you thought the idea was a good one, you might get “no volunteers” to take on the job.

e. All I can say is that in principle, the Fr. Ferris Park should be run by a separate committee or a sub-committee of the Community Council so that it does not dominate the agenda at every monthly meeting, which might encourage people to come back to meetings.

FR. FERRIS FIELD INFORMATION

I am treating this as a separate heading. My view would be that the Community Council should simply put out on social media and in TheAvondhu the exact financial position of the Fr. Ferris Park. What is the debt. What is the repayment cost. Ask for fundraising proposals. Say that groups using it would have to contribute towards the cost – that might focus everybody’s mind.

THE COMMUNITY COUNCIL (SEPARATE TO THE FR. FERRIS PARK GOING FORWARD)

I’ll go back here to item number 5 in my letter of the 31st August, 2018.

I do think that the Community Council and the various sub-committees need to be identified.

If money is held by the various sub-committees they have to be asked to set out what monies they hold and what liabilities

they have.

If those sub-committees want to become independent groups on their own, then that is a separate decision. If that is the decision they take, it should be for them to arrange for their own insurance policy/cover, etc.

There are obviously people who are very interested and active in the Tidy Towns, who help out with looking after the senior citizens or who do other projects from time to time.

It is a matter for the Community Council as to whether or not they must all stay in under the umbrella of the Community Council or whether they should all be left go on their own as individual committees, their own individual accounts and with their own individual insurance cover.

I fully appreciate that this is a major decision and various people may have very strong views.

HOUSING COMPANY

I am just not clear is there any initiative for any kind of social housing at present, or sheltered housing etc?

THE FUTURE

I think if all of the above headings were discussed at a meeting, and all of the financial facts were set out for the Community Council, the Fr. Ferris field and all of the various sub-committees (insofar as they can be got) with supporting bank statements, then nobody could say but that “everything was up on the table”. Decisions could then be taken in relation to the various items including these headings if people thought they were useful. If anybody else has other ideas, let them be talked through also.

After that position is outlined and made fully clear, and then you can then

go forward to the future of the Community Council.

THE FUTURE OF THE COMMUNITY COUNCIL

a) How the Community Council is structured and how it functions in the future depends on the decisions taken in relation to the above points and any other points that people have.

b) If for example, the sub-committees go on their own, what is left for the Community Council.

c) If there is a separate committee set up for the Fr. Ferris Park, what is left for the Community Council?

d) It may be that the Community Council then is the “umbrella committee” for various community initiatives like the three that I mentioned at the very beginning.

e) I don’t have any answers as to how to get membership into the Community Council.

f) Perhaps as a transition, we might ask if the various clubs and associations wanted to nominate someone to come into the Community Council or for example go to the three estates where a lot of younger families are living to see if they want to put a delegate or two onto the Community Council and also for example, ask the schools whether they want somebody from the parent’s council on the Community Council.

g) All I am doing in suggesting that way is that you would get a mix of ideas and a mix of people from all different parts of the parish and from all different clubs and associations. It may be that nobody is interested, but at least you would have tried.

My own personal view is I am not in favour of self-nomination. I think if people are allowed to nominate themselves a small bunch of people can easily get self-elected and that kills the whole idea of an overall Community Council. Others may disagree.

I think the longer term structure of the Community Council might evolve over a year or two, if people came on from different clubs or associations or different parts of the parish and at least it could be seen to be spread across the parish. It might be for example, in addition to clubs and associations and different estates being asked to nominate people, there could be a public notice on social media or TheAvondhu asking people to make themselves available from all corners of the parish on a temporary basis for 6 months or 12 months as members of a Community Council to develop community initiatives and parish projects.

CONCLUSION

These are only my ideas and both yourself and the other officers and the Avondhu (Blackwater) group may find them a waste of time.

It might be that there will have to be a Transition Committee put in place if, for example, people were prepared to come forward from different sides of the parish and set up some type of temporary Community Council as mentioned above.

This letter is available to the present officers of the Community Council and the Avondhu (Blackwater) group and if people want to circulate it more widely than that, I have absolutely no problem, if this letter and the two attached copy letters are circulated to whoever it feels might have a comment or contribution.

Yourssincerely, JeremiahHealy.