IMPORTANT DATE FOR THE DIARY
Residents of the Estates in Ballincollig together with the General Public are invited to attend a talk by Margaret Griffin of Griffins Garden Centre on the Importance of Planting Pollinator Plants. This is to take place on Tuesday 3rd March in The Oriel House Hotel at 8pm.
The newly revised marking format for the Annual Estates Competition will also be unveiled on the night. We are excited at the changes put in place making the competition more up to date and in-keeping with Biodiversity and the Pollinator Corridor and the steps we are taking with regard to same going forward.
Ballincollig Tidy Towns has created a new logo for its Spray Free initiative. This will also be launched on the night. Residents will be in a position to earn Spray Free signage for their individual Estates and, as a result, extra marks will be allocated to them in the Annual Estates Competition.
Members of the Spray Free Committee will be available to work with Estates in the coming months and offer them advice and options. They will also make Irish Pollinator Seeds available to them.
Finbarr from Wild Work will give a brief talk on the upcoming Ballincollig Tidy Towns Biodiversity Action Plan.
https://www.facebook.com/wildworkers
This will cover –
- Community Fund for Ireland Environment and Nature Fund 2019 and Community Biodiversity Action Plans
- Wild Work and Ballincollig Tidy Towns working together with community to produce the plan
- A draft plan produced by end of April 2020.
- Consultation with community after that online and through meetings / events / educational sessions.
- Action Plan presented to Community Fund for Ireland in March 2021.
- Give contact info
Landscape Contractors and staff from City Council have also been invited to attend on Tuesday 3rd March in the hope that everyone will work together going forward.
LITTER PICK
Last Sunday twenty-five Volunteers and three Transition Year students gathered for the weekly Litter Pick.
Fourteen bags were collected and when segregated were broken down into 3 bags of Plastic, 2 bags of Glass, 1 bag of Cans and 8 bags of Waste.
There were also some unusual items found by Volunteers along the route…. some that are better left unmentioned.
We also collected 4 bags of old waste from Old Quarter (which were found dumped at the back of the estate by residents).
PLASTIC BOTTLE RECYCLING
This week Green Dragon collected thirty-one bags of plastic bottles from our Allotment for recycling. These thirty-one bags came from plastic bottles collected by Ballincollig Community School together with those collected by our CE/TUS Workers when they segregated the bags of rubbish from the weekly Litter Picks. This was a fantastic amount. However, it highlights the high volume of plastic bottles that are in use in our community alone.
WORK IN PROGRESS
The clearing of the ground under the Beech Hedge on the Old Fort Road was completed this week. It is now ready for planting Pollinator / Bee Friendly seeds. The CE/TUS Workers certainly did a wonderful job. It has made a huge difference to the road.
Work has started on the removal of weeds along the bottom of the wall and the footpath between Poulavone Roundabout and Rosenalee Care Centre. This weed removal while it takes a lot longer is definitely much better than spraying.
COME JOIN US
As always, we are looking for more Volunteers to join us for the Sunday Litter Pick and / or the various projects that we will be undertaking in the coming weeks and months. If you have some time to spare and would like to become more involved in your community, contact PAT CLARKE on 087 6348807.
WEBSITE
Take time to visit our website on www.ballincolligtidytowns.ie for lots of interesting items and information.