Newsletter 21 June 2024

Keep Cup Initiative Launch

Ballincollig Business Association are excited to invite you to the launch of the Ballincollig Eco-Friendly Cup Campaign! This event will take place at Nosh on July 1st at 10:00 AM.

Their campaign aims to eliminate single-use cups in-store by implementing the 2GoCup Deposit and Return scheme for takeaway drinks. This initiative is a significant step towards reducing waste and promoting sustainability within our community.

Join the BBA to learn more about how this scheme works and how it can benefit both your business and our environment. You can find more details about the 2GoCup system here.

We look forward to seeing you there and working together towards a greener Ballincollig.

Volunteers are the Best

Without fantastic volunteers what would we do and what would our community be like.

We are blessed to an amazing team of volunteers in BTT who give freely of their time and energy for nothing other than a Sense of Pride in their community. Week in Week out they continue to do their best for Ballincollig. They are amazing people who range in age from 16 to 90 who are very committed Last Sunday we had 29 volunteers out for our weekly litter pick and other works.

This week we welcomed back two stalwart volunteers who have been unable to join us for a while.

They came back this week and it’s as if they were never missing. They are back and like every volunteer they are always welcome especially for the Cuppa afterwards in The Plaza.

Kind regards,

Tom

Planter Care

With all our planters now in place, the constant care and attention is ongoing. On Saturday evening the Waterboys were out for 2 hours and used 1,100 litres of water filling the reservoirs in the window boxes pole planters ,towers and of course the parklet.

In addition a further 700 litres of water was used by Tom on the Eastgate planters.

On Monday evening Ger and Pat used 900 litres of water over2 1/2 hours to fill all planters. While watering we were also feeding the plants so hopefully with the recent dry spell the flowers should really begin to bloom.

Green Flag for Scoil Mhuire

Congratulations to Scoil Mhuire Ballincollig who this week will raise their 8th Green Flag for Global Citizenship: Litter & Waste. This is a fantastic achievement by the management, teachers staff and pupils whose hard work has certainly paid off.

Signs Signs Signs

Each year we carry out a Sign Washing Campaign. In 2023 our volunteers washed over 250 signs throughout Ballincollig. It may seem like a lot of unnecessary work but the results are well worth it. It is amazing when we see the difference when the signs are cleaned. This is the standard we constantly want to achieve .

Old Fort Road

Tom Keith and Jimmy were busy on Tuesday morning. They finished off a job on The Old Fort Road early in the morning and removed the cut grass to the allotment to the Compost Bays.

Operation Weedhex

There are a number of areas around the town centre where they are under private ownership but however they are not maintained and are left unkempt.

We tackled one of these areas again on Tuesday morning namely the area around Bank of Ireland and Sliced.

Where possible we used the Weedhex machine to great effect re the speed of operation.

Busy Thursday

Ger and Tom had a very busy Thursday morning. The two lads started by removing the weeds in front of a gate opposite The Oriel House Hotel and the wall beside it. They then moved to Station Road where they did a great job cleaning weeds and debris in front of the walls of the apartment

They then went and collected bags from the residents of greenfields and Rosewood who had been busy cleaning in their areas.

One Man on His Knees

Our volunteer Eugene has continued his great efforts on cleaning the Street Furniture on Main Street. His traditional work with lots of elbow grease is certainly paying dividends.

Welcome to Ballincollig

Our newest planters were put in place this week at the Welcome to Ballincollig signs at Inniscarra Bridge and at the Killumney Road. A little later that the rest but they will brighten the roads into our great Community.

Tuesday Worknight

On Tuesday Night a crew of 16 Volunteers were working on and around Poulavone Roundabout. We cut the grass, weeded the perimeter and also edged and cut back two sections of footpaths. A busy night but a lot done in an hour.

RTÉ Cork focus group

RTÉ Cork will be running focus groups throughout July and August to better understand the needs of Afternoon TV audiences.

We would like to offer the members of Ballincollig Tidy Towns the opportunity to take part and have their voices heard. People of all ages and backgrounds are encouraged to participate.

The events will take place in Cork City on the 9th/10th of July and will last for two hours. One session will run in the morning and one in the afternoon, so *please clarify which date or time suits you better when applying.*

This event will include (1) a focus group and (2) a short questionnaire. Tea, coffee and snacks will be provided for participants, and everyone is welcome to take a small gift bag at the end of the session.

*All interested members can send their contact information (name, phone number and/or email) to James.Egan@rte.ie or text 085-193-7503. We ask all applicants to include their age (18-34, 35-50, 51-65, or 65+) and answer whether they are regular viewers of Afternoon TV or not.*

A member of staff will be in contact closer to the date with more details regarding specific times and the specific location of the events.