Thurles Information

In March 2013 Thurles Town Council (Comhairle Baile Ceanntar Dhurlas) announced the welcome news that it had at last purchased eight acres of land from St Patrick’s College for the provision of a new Thurles Town Park.

The land purchased, which partially bounds the east bank of the River Suir and partially backs onto the more recently constructed easterly Thurles Civic & Leisure Centre have now produced a preliminary design via some excellent planning work undertaken by Malachy Walsh & Partners, latter whose proposals went on public display in the past few weeks to a very small audience.

Local interested readers however can now view this proposed design here.

Having reviewed these excellent plans in detail I personally however would love to see perhaps three changes to the agreed overall designs. These changes come under the headings; Shelter Belt, Skateboard Park and River Suir and are discussed hereunder.

Shelter Belt

Local residents will be aware from weather conditions over the past few weeks that the annual prevailing wind blowing across Thurles arrives mainly from a South Westerly direction. This plan therefore begs the question has a sufficient shelter belt been provided in this plan for the Autumn /Winter months, thus ensuring the most frequent and maximum use of this needed public amenity?

To my mind planners should now review the East and West banks of the river Suir, together with the sites eastern boundary with St Patrick’s College, to ensure that a suitable shelter belt is put in place. The ideal tree for the outer ring of a shelter belt is of course evergreen because same provides protection all year round. Suitable fast growing evergreen trees would perhaps include Scots Pine, Monterey Pine, Evergreen Oak or Bay Tree. Suitable inner ring fast growing hedge plants could include Olearia traversii, Olearia macrodonta, Olearia paniculata, Olearia x virgata, Escallonia macrantha, Elaeagnus x ebbingei or Griselinia littoralis, all of which offers excellent boundary shelter to protect the winter walker.

Skateboard Park or Tennis Courts?

Skate boarding as a sport, began in the 1960’s developed by surfers as an activity when the ocean waves were too calm. It spread across here to Ireland much later.  Today the sport for the vast majority of participants has taken the road of the now deceased but then popular Hula Hoop, invented in the late 1950’s. Skateboarding as a sport is profoundly difficult and technical and this fact leads many skaters to quickly quit. Worldwide the first skateboard magazine, “Quarterly Skateboarder,” which was published in 1964 ceased to exist five years later and although revived again as a business idea in 1975, under the title “Skateboarder”, it also failed in profitability in the early 1980s. This Christmas in Thurles not one Skateboard was sought as a Christmas gift from either Santa Clause or family members. Out of a population of some 12,000 people living in Thurles and its environs, the facebook page promoted by some local councillors to encourage support for such an amenity in August 2011, same has (as I go to print) after over two years only acquired 18 friends and 365 likes, latter mostly from others anxious to promote other enterprises.

So I say to our Town Councillors, the hint and future success maybe in this detail and if  preliminary plans are not yet worked out, perhaps we could instead have returned to our town,  two Tennis Courts, latter sold off  as a building site and which in the past was so much enjoyed by men, women and youths of all ages groups between 10 & 65.  My own feeling is that Local Councillors supporting such an amenity in Thurles were only copying ideas from Councillors in Athy, Castlebar, Bray and Sligo  all of whom were attempting to court that ever elusive pre-election local newspaper headline. It is also interesting to note that bye-laws had to be introduced in American towns and cities preventing persons on the way to Skateboard parks from skateboarding on the footpaths. Police were given the task of administering fines of $500 for such social offences. Is Skateboarding in Thurles therefore popular enough to warrant the expenditure likely to be incurred by the taxpayer?

River Suir

If I have any real criticism of Malachy Walsh & Partners preliminary design work, it is the fact that the river Suir, flowing through the town centre, has not been included fully as part of this overall development.  This again, I suspect may be caused by a lack of imagination on the part of our local Councillors. According to reliable sources I understand that our recent remarks here on Thurles.Info regarding raw sewage continuing to flow unabated into the river Suir, just two metres south of Barry’s Bridge footpath and less than 25 metres from the town’s main shopping arena, were ignored at a recent council meeting by the remark “This is treated sewage and therefore no cause for concern.”  This same remark then concluded any further intelligent conversation on this issue. This of course now begs the question whether or not we should put all treated sewage from Thurles, Cahir and Clonmel into the  river Suir and let Waterford Harbour authorities deal with the consequences.

As a boy living near Courtown Harbour in Co Wexford many moons ago, one of the big attractions was to hire a small flat bottomed Pedal Boat and enjoy a short 15 minute trip in an area known as “The Basin.”  There were about 10 such boats on hire and adults and youngsters waited and watched for hours to gain access to these boats during the summer season. Surely it is possible to raise the water level on the Suir a couple of  feet, say from Barry’s bridge to below the Swinging Gate for such a profitable enterprise.  If we can boat in Lough Derg surely we can use flat bottomed Pedal Boats on the river Suir. Anyone out there looking to invest in a start-up small business?

But first let’s remove and ban the entry of treated or otherwise raw sewage into the river Suir.  Until we do, best also to cancel the area set aside for disabled fishing or at least put up a Pollution Sign e.g. Fish Taken From This River Are Unfit For Human Consumption.

What do you, the residents of Thurles think?  Express your views by commenting, hereunder before any firm decisions are made for you by unimaginative public representatives. Remember this is your money being spent.

Ireland’s Public and Private waste industry representatives, as well as business operators interested in waste recycling and prevention, will participate in an information event in County Tipperary tomorrow (Thursday November 14th 2013).

The “Envisioning Resource Efficiency” event takes place in the Horse & Jockey Hotel, Thurles, here in Co. Tipperary and is being hosted by the Southern Region Waste Management Office through its remit as a project partner in the European-wide ‘Regions 4 Recycling,’ (R4R) project. The Regional Waste Management Office, which develops and coordinates waste activities and policy throughout the Region, says the event will feature presentations from a range of waste experts, a questions and answers session, information stands and an interim update on the R4R project.

Under the three-year Interreg IVC European Regional Development funded R4R project, local authorities in Limerick, Clare, Kerry, Cork, Waterford, Wexford, Kilkenny, Tipperary and Carlow have joined participating authorities in 12 other European regions in making performance comparisons and exchange of good practices in order to improve their respective recycling performances.

According to Philippa King, Regional Co-ordinator for the Southern Waste Region: “European municipalities are subject to common EU waste management regulations but have taken different approaches to reach the recycling targets. Differences between the recycling performances are evident, ranging from less than 10% to more than 70% from one region to another. Some of the differences can be accounted for by different data compilation practices between regions. Interim results collated by participating R4R project partners show that the Southern Region of Ireland is one of the leading regions in Europe in terms of Recycling and Low waste generation and Prevention.
Tomorrow’s event will be of particular benefit to those organisations and businesses looking to improve their waste collection and recycling policies by learning from the experiences of others throughout the region and overseas. This is no charge for this event but booking is essential via the Southern Region Waste Management Office at 061 496596 or rwmo@limerickcoco.ie,” added Ms. King.

Guest speakers at the event include R4R project partners Jean-Benoit Bel of French-based Ordif speaking about “From Local Waste Data to the European Recycling Society”, and Svend Byrial Poulsen of Odense Renovation (Denmark) who will be making a presentation on the “The Odense Waste Management Experience.”

Other speakers include Dr. Shane Colgan, EPA (Ireland’s National Waste Prevention Plan), Brian Lyons, Clean Ireland Refuse & Recycling (Recycling Municipal Waste into the Future – A Waste Contractor View), Martin Tobin, ERP Ireland (Recycling Household & Business WEEE into the Future), Percy Foster, CRE – Composting Association of Ireland (Rolling out the Brown Bin in Ireland Challenges and Opportunities), Warren Phelan, RPS Consulting Engineers (The Irish Waste Market: Changes, Trends and Observations), and Pauline McDonogh and Dr. Mary Stack, Local Authority Prevention Network (Waste Prevention in Practice: Regional & Local Co-operation for a Resource Efficient Future).

“Envisioning Resource Efficiency,” takes place in the Horse & Jockey Hotel, Co. Tipperary on tomorrow, Thursday November 14th 2013 from 9.30am to 3.30pm.

For more visit www.managewaste.ie.

Latvian and Greek Agencies Adopt Good Practices After Tipperary Visit

Three Mid-West environmental and tourism projects have been showcased as good practice examples to regional development agencies from 8 countries across Europe. Regional development agencies from Finland, Slovenia, Latvia, Greece, Romania, Netherlands, UK and Ireland last week visited Lough Derg, and the Olatrim (Tipperary) and Groody (Limerick) Rivers.

The study visit, which also included a conference in Limerick’s Strand Hotel, was organised by the Mid-West Regional Authority (MWRA) as part of its ongoing remit as a partner agency in the EU-funded ‘Territories of Rivers Action Plans,’ (TRAP) project. The two-year project is aimed at benefiting partner regions through the transfer of good practices in integrated water and landscape management.

Cllr. Oliver Garry, MWRA Cathaoirleach said: “The TRAP project and interregional meetings such as this enable the MWRA to benefit from exchanges with other partner regions, each of whom has particular expertise in one or more areas such as governance, monitoring, aquatic environment or river tourism. The MWRA can also share its best practises in the area of governance, given its extensive experience of Regional Planning Guidelines and the important role that they can play in the sustainable development of an area.”

During last week’s visit, the TRAP partners were addressed by a number of public agencies with responsibility for Lough Derg, including Waterways Ireland, Fisheries Ireland and the OPW.  The group were also addressed by Dan Minchin of the Lough Derg Science Group who gave a perspective on the ecological and historical aspects of Ireland’s third largest lake. The partners took a boat trip of the lake between Ballina and Garrykennedy and enjoyed an Irish music recital with dance by 30 pupils of Gaelscoil Aonach Urmhumhan (Nenagh). Visits were also undertaken to the Olatrim and Groody Rivers which are subject to improvements works by the OPW and Fisheries Ireland, under the Environmental River Enhancement Programme (EREP).

Mr Joe MacGrath, North Tipperary County Manager and the MWRA’s Designated County Manager said the study visits to Lough Derg and the Olatrim and Groody Rivers have led to three of the EU partners transferring the good practices implemented in the Mid-West into similar domestic projects. Mr MacGrath explained: “We were delighted to be able to facilitate a visit to Lough Derg during which we showcased the work of the Lough Derg Marketing Strategy Group, a collaborative approach of public state agencies and private sector representatives, in relation to marketing Lough Derg and improving its tourism functionality. Our project partners from Greece are taking this good practice and transferring into their own policy and have also identified the Mid West Regional Planning Guidelines as a good practice.”

Liam Conneally, Director of the MWRA said the visit will feed into the progress already made by participating project partners since the TRAP project was initiated in 2012. “Through its participation in this project, the MWRA is seeking to improve the governance of lake tourism, for Lough Derg in particular,” he added.

Mr Conneally added “Furthermore policies adopted in the Region on landscape, flood risk assessment and protection of aquifers were lauded by our Latvian partners who will be transferring these policies into their own regional planning strategy. They hope to improve policy guidance at a regional level as this is weak in Latvia, and of particular relevance to a number of rivers that traverse Latvia but originate in neighbouring countries. Meanwhile, our UK partner, The Association of River Trusts is transferring the environmental and ecological work practices being implemented on the Olatrim and Groody Rivers into its own projects.”

Mr. Conneally continued: “The MWRA and the South-West Regional Authority (SWRA) hosted a joint Irish stakeholders’ meeting in October 2012 which attracted 20 representatives from 15 organisations in the Mid-West and South-West regions. Major challenges were seen to be about partnerships, local ownership of problems, engaging of communities, integration of policies, inter-relationships between issues and coordination between organisations. The MWRA are currently working in conjunction with the Lough Derg Marketing Strategy Group to identify how two particular good practices of the TRAP project will be imported from other partner regions and transposed to the situation of Lough Derg to provide a more holistic approach to governance of the region.”

TRAP is co-funded by the ERDF Interreg IVC programme. Project partners include Kainuun Etu Ltd (Finland); Association of River Trusts (United Kingdom); Zemgale Planning Region (Latvia); Regional Development Agency of Western Macedonia SA (Greece), MWRA and SWRA (Ireland); Waterboard Noorderzijlvest (Netherlands); National Institute of Research Development for Mechatronics (Romania); and Soca Valley Development Centre (Slovenia).

For more on the TRAP project visit www.trapproject.eu.