Fran Deasy sent ECI this latest update:
Our group consists of people from the St. John & Carrigaline Union of Parishes and Our Lady & St. John, sister parishes in Carrigaline, Co. Cork. We work and meet together, hopefully in person again before the Autumn. In the springtime areas of both of our sister church grounds were dedicated to ‘No Mow May’ and that has evolved into ‘Don’t Mow, Let it Grow’ throughout the summer. Graveyards, church grounds and parish house gardens are thriving with new wildflowers and in the Rectory garden can you spot the rabbit?
On both of our Parish FaceBook pages we encouraged everyone to sign up for pledging their gardens for pollinators as part of the ‘All Ireland Pollinator Plan’, and we encourage parishioner’s feedback and views on a variety of local and national environmental issues including Ireland’s Marine Protected Area Network, and the Carrigaline Transportation and Public Realm Enhancement Plan. Carrigaline and the surrounding townlands are undergoing enormous and rapid development. Currently 800+ new houses are being built, new infrastructure and roads developed, a new motorway nearby planned and three new schools are opening in the Autumn.
As a local faith community committed to concern for others and the natural environment we had submitted our own group feedback in February 2021 on the proposed Carrigaline Transportation and Public Realm Enhancement Plan to the Senior Engineer of Cork County Council.
A draft plan for Carrigaline was published in May, and in June again as a group we gave feedback on our concerns about there being no mention of biodiversity or environmental protection or enhancement of the public spaces with native Irish trees and pollinator planting and also a lack of safety measures for pedestrians and for cyclists in the draft. We also suggested the development of a Carrigaline Community orchard. We are now waiting to see if our concerns have been acted on.
The value of giving feedback in planning processes was highlighted when a new supermarket planning to open shortly in Carrigaline has agreed to double the number of electric car charging points provided in response to an email from one of our members. It’s very worthwhile to keep an eye out for local planning and development and as a group to communicate our concerns for others and for the environment.