Phibsborough Spring Clean

Grab your rubber gloves! Phizzfest and Phibsborough Business Association together with local residents and with the support of DCC will take the An Taisce Spring Clean to Phibsborough on Saturday 28th April between 10 am and 2pm. Will you give 2 hours? Can you rope in a pal/partner/offspring?! Many hands make light work and a big difference! 

HQ on Phibsborough Road in the old Chartbusters premises beside Boots.

If anyone has a business or is a resident in the area and you think you can get involved please phone (0878314404) or email Angela at phibsboroughbusiness@gmail.com or volunteers@phizzfest.com

Mary

Whitehall Garda Station

The Gardai are in the process of vacating Whitehall Garda Station and on 29th of April 2012 Whitehall Garda Station will be handed back to the Office of Public Works. 

Current Whitehall staff are being transferred to Santry Garda Station with a mandate to continue policing the Whitehall area. 

Santry Garda Station will be open to the public from 7am-9pm and outside of these hours all incoming phone traffic will automatically divert to Ballymun Garda Station which will remain a 24 hour accessible station to the public. 

Chief Superintendent Clerkin is the Senior Garda responsible for the area and he has committed that the same level of policing will be maintained in the area. 

In the case of an emergency or if you see anything suspicious in the area please phone 999. 

The OPW has not advised its plans for the building or what savings will be achieved by this closure. 

I will continue to monitor the situation but please do not hesitate to contact me if I can be of any assistance. 

Mary

Derelict Houses Connaught Street

Dublin City Council was in court again this week with the owner of 19/21 Connaught Street. The owner of these two houses gave an undertaking under oath in the District Court that the outstanding outstanding work would be completed within four weeks. The work is to include repairs to the roof and brick work on the upper floor of 21 Connaught street. The Council’s solicitor advised the court that a conviction would be sought on the adjourned date – May 22 - in the event of the work not being carried out in full. In the meantime the properties remain on the derelict sites register. I will post further updates as they become available. Mary

NWIC Policing Forum

The next meeting of the North West Inner City Community Policing Forum is the 2nd May 2012 and will be held in the Jameson Distillery at 7.OOPM. All residents and property owners in the area are invited to attend to discuss with the Gardai, Dublin City Council and Elected Representatives any issues in the area.

Regards, Mary

Sports Capital Grants

The Sports Capital Grant Programme has recently been re-opened and is currently accepting applications.

Up to €30 million will be awarded to sports clubs to develop their facilities and enable them to purchase sports equipment.

Groups that may apply include sports clubs, voluntary and community organisations, national governing bodies of sport, local authorities and in some cases VECs and schools.

The programme aims to prioritise the needs of disadvantaged areas in the provision of sports facilities and to encourage the multi-purpose use of local, regional and national sports facilities by clubs, community organisations and national governing bodies of sport.

The type of projects that may be funded are as follows:

- Natural and artificial sports pitches, tracks and courts (including pitch drainage)
- Floodlighting
- Building or refurbishment of dressing rooms, showers and toilets, sports halls, gyms
- Any other capital projects that are clearly sporting in nature and that will increase participation in sport or improve performance

Organisations that wish to apply will need to prove that they can fund 15% of the overall cost of the project themselves. However, those based in disadvantaged areas covered by the RAPID scheme will only have to contribute 5%.

Applications can be made online until Friday, 1st June HERE.

Applications through the post (and all supporting documentation) must reach the Department by 5pm on Friday 11th May 2012.

Please contact me if you need any support making an application. Mary

Flood Warning

MET Eireann issued a rain advisory (not a severe weather alert) at 11.14 today for the period from midnight on Wednesday 25th April 2012 to

12 noon on Thursday 26th April 2012.

This has been assessed by the City Council’s Emergency Management Team and following discussions with MET Eireann’s Forecast Division the latest forecasts for Dublin as forecast by MET Eireann is for 12-15mm of rain over this period and other international forecasts are suggesting 15-20mm of rain in this period.

Tides on Wednesday and Thursday should reach levels of 1.6m Malin, 1.5m, 1.3m and 1.0m respectively, which are well below monitoring level of 2.3m Malin. 30-60km/hr ESE, ENE, NE and NNE winds are also forecast.

The risk of Pluvial flooding from thunderstorm activity is possible but it is not possible to predict in advance the time, location or severity of any such thunderstorm activity.

Areas at potential risk are:

· Areas previously affected by flooding.
· Basements.
· Local Low lying areas.

General guidance on how to reduce flood risk is contained in guidance booklets produced by Office of Public Works is available on www.opw.ie and is also on the City Council’s website. www.dublincity.ie

Mary.

Five Lamps Art Festival

In its fifth year, the Five Lamps Art Festival will run from 19th to the 26th of April 2012.  There is a great programme organised, for more information click HERE. (I will try and get a photo of me at the five lamps this week, so hold off posting this)

DIT for Women

DIT are again running their Developing Women Through Sport and Physical Activity Programme.

 DIT Sport and recreation Service in partnership with Dublin City Council are seeking to recruit 20 women for the programme. For more information and I have some brochures here in the GDA office which I can send out. You can also find out more at FACEBOOK or HERE.

You can contact the programme co-ordinator Niamh O’ Callaghan should you wish to discuss the programme with someone. Tel: 01 4023042 or Email: niamh.ocallaghan@dit.ie

Mary.

Household Charge

The Government should stop trying to bully people into paying the household charge by threatening to criminalise ordinary householders who don't pay.

Many people have not received information about the household charge, do not know if they are liable for the charge or how to pay the charge. Additionally there are many ordinary householders who simply cannot afford to pay the household charge of €100 before the end of March.

The proposed household charge is unfair and the government needs to go back to the drawing board on this one.

The household charge is unfair for the following reasons:

• it taxes the property regardless of whether it is a bedsit or a mansion, in ballybunion or dalkey
• it does not take into account the income of the persons living in the property
• it does not apply to state provided housing
• it applies to negative equity properties
• it applies to properties with mortgage arrears
• it applies to properties for which significant stamp duty was already paid
• it applies to vacant properties
• it applies to non principle private residences for which the NPPR has already been paid 

The government are using the household charge as just another way of collecting money to run the state. We all understand that the Government has been a shortfall in income and they are using various means to collect more money so they can bridge the gap between income (tax) and spending. Indiscriminately applying a €100 charge on every property in the country is the wrong way to do it. It will not work, many people cannot pay, many people will not pay. The Government should be grown-up enough to admit that they rushed this legislation through and they have got it wrong.

The Government needs to properly consider how it will fund local services. Any new tax to fund local services must be based on the payees ability to pay. Local taxes should be defined locally, collected locally and spent locally.

I have asked Fianna Fail's spokesperson on the Enviornment, Niall Collins TD to raise these issues with Minister Phil Hogan. I have also asked him to specifically request Minister Hogan to make available to all householders the facility to pay quarterly in instalments by pay by direct debit. It is unacceptable and unfair that people registering after March 1st are being denied that facility.

Mary

Greyhound

Reminder to customers of Greyhound Kerbside Waste Collection

 Dublin City Council labels for black/general waste bags are not valid for Greyhound collections after March 16th (except for waiver customers whose labels will be honoured until 31st December, 2012). Black/general waste bags require a Greyhound sticker after that date.

A refund for unused Dublin City Council labels can be arranged by submitting the labels along with the customer’s name and address to Dublin City Council, PO Box 10094; or by contacting Dublin City Council Customer Services at T. (01) 222 1000.

Mary.

Career Workshop & Jobnet

As part of their 2012 Career Direction and Development Programme The Business Information Center in the Ilac Library will host a Career planning workshop with Aaron Downes on 22nd March at 6.30pm.

Also on the 22nd of March , Jobcare will be here with a helpdesk from 5.00pm to 6.30pm to promote Jobnet, a free programme for unemployed professional, graduates and fast-track jobseekers. For more information please click HERE & HERE.

Best of luck, Mary

Royal Canal Park Community Association

The Royal Canal Park Community Association is holding its AGM in Rathborne Community Hall at 7.30pm on Wednesday 28 March 2012. Click HERE for more info. Mary.

Burglaries

At a recent meeting of the Dublin Central Joint Policing Committee the Gardai reported a significant increase in the number of burglaries in the Navan Road, Cabra and North Inner City areas of Dublin Central.

The Gardai are asking residents and property owners to be vigilant and to report any suspicious persons or activity by calling 999 or the confidential Garda line 1800 666 111 or the local Garda Stations Cabra 666 7400, Mountjoy 666 8600, Bridewell 666 8200 or Store Street 666 8000. Mary.

DIT Development in Cabra

DIT has recently acquired the former Hanay site on Broombridge Road in Cabra.  DIT intends to develop the site as an additional sports facility close to Grangegorman.  In order to develop the site DIT is preparing plans for an all weather floodlit sports pitch and indoor sports, recreational and educational facilities which will require planning permission.  Before submitting a planning application DIT is consulting with local residents and business owners in the area.  They have put their proposed plans on display in Cabra Library from the 6^th to the 16^th of March.  On Weds 14^th of March from 10am – 8pm DIT staff will be in the library to explain the plans and answer any questions.  I would encourage people to go have a look at the plans and if you have any suggestions to make please drop me an email.  Thanks, Mary

Gael Scoil Bharra Nuacht Iontach

Congratulations to the parents, children and teachers of Gael Scoil Bharra on the success of their campaign, which I have consistently supported, for a purpose built Gael Scoil.  This week marked a milestone with the government confirming that GSB is to be included in the five year school building plan.  It is scheduled for building to commence in 2014.  The next step is for the design of the school to be finalised and planning permission obtained.  I will continue to support this project and assist in anyway I can with securing planning permission from Dublin City Council.   Mary

St Marys Holy Faith

Attended very well organised meeting is St Mary's Holy Faith in Glasnevin last night, students, parents and teachers very upset over unfair cuts to Education. They make very compelling arguments against cuts to career guidance posts which I have taken up today with FF party spokes people for Education. Mary.

Cabra Community Policing Forum

There will be a public meeting to address concerns in relation to burglaries in Cabra East.  The meeting will take place in Christ the King Hall at 7.30pm on Friday 9th March 2012.  Residents and property owners in the area are invited to attend the meeting. Mary

Glasnevin Community Garden

Residents in Glasnevin are exploring the idea of creating a community garden or allotments in the old Smurfit Printing site on Botanic Road.

This idea is in the very early stages of exploration but to test possible support and interest in the wider community they are holding a workshop on March 13th in Hedigans Brian Boru Pub on Prospect Road. 

The objective of the workshop is to generate ideas on how part of the old Smurfit Factory site can be transformed into a new Community Garden.

The Garden Design Event is about sharing ideas and forming a joint vision for the future of the space. Anyone who might be interested in participating in the community garden, who has creative ideas for how the space might be used, or who would like to know more about the project should come along.

The Event will look at how to analyse the site and how to plan a community garden.

The Community Garden Design Event is being facilitated by David Andrews, a Landscape Architect who runs Community Design Workshops and Courses.

This event and campaign for a community garden is an Iona neighbourhood initiative.

FOR MORE INFORMATION - PLEASE CONTACT MUIREANN MORRIS -087 – 2833038 OR 8305347

Mary.

Mountjoy Square Conservation

Dublin City Council has formally given notice that it intends to designate Mountjoy Square an Architectural Conservation Area. This is a positive development for the City and the square.

To designate the area as an ACA requires a variation to the Dublin City Development Plan. There is a public consultation process and you can view the relevant documents HERE.

A public information meeting on the Mountjoy Architectural Conservation Area Plan, organised by the Planning Department , will take place 4.30pm on 15th March in 25 Mountjoy Square East, Dublin 1. A short presentation will be given.

Submissions can be made to Dublin City Council and should be addressed to: Tom Vaughan, Planning and Economic Development Department, Civic Offices, Wood Quay, Dublin 8, or by email to development.plan@dublincity.ie before 16.30 on Wednesday 21st March 2012.

Mary

Phizzfest 2012

Organisers of Phizzfest have issued an “Open call” for performers, bands, writers, musicians, storytellers, players, comedians, artists and anyone who interested in continuing to make the festival a spectacular occasion.


Open Call Closing Date : Friday 30th March

Visual Art Closing Date : Friday 13th April

Phizzfest 2012 will take place from 1^st -9^th September 2012 in various locations in Phibsborough, Dublin 7

For more information go to www.phizzfest.ie