Donabate Biodiversity Plan Open day. Sat Nov 7th

An open day for information on the Donabate Biodiversity Plan will be held on Saturday November 7th in the Donabate Town Centre foyer area. We will have plans, maps and explanations available for teh Draft Biodiversity Plan for the peninsula between 1pm-4pm.
Please pop by and find out more about how you can get involved in the plan for the peninsula and have your say.

Results are out- We are 5 points up!

Celebrations all round in Donabate! We have increased our score by 5 points on last year, achieving 245 points. That is a great achievement and our thanks to all of the volunteers who have contributed to our success. Our congratulations also to neighbouring Skerries who won the Fingal Gold Award and Swords who won the endeavour award. This year we set litter as one of our objectives and we were slightly disappointed not to increase in that category. We will just have to redouble our efforts next year and with the help of Fingal Co.Co hopefully we will increase our points in that category next year.

To view our adjudication report for this year please see:
http://www.tidytowns.ie/u_reports/2009/2009%20County%20Dublin_Fingal%20Donabate%2025.pdf

Best Front Garden competition winner

Congratulations to Jane Farrell, The Square, Donabate, winner of our Donabate Best Front Garden competition 2009. Jane is the winner of a hotel break for 2 kindly sponsored by Kane and McCartney Super Valu in Donabate Town Centre.

Joint 2nd prize of a €50 garden centre voucher each goes to Eddie Gorry, Portrane Rd, and Ann Hoolahan, the Hand, Ballisk. Congratulations to all. It was great to see the residents of Donabate displaying their fantastic gardening skills.

Biodiversity in Donabate

We have been working with Hans Visser, Biodiversity officer for Fingal Co. Co. to produce a Biodiversity plan for Donabate. This is a long term project and will bring many different groups working in Donabate together: Tidy Towns, The Donabate Portrane Community Council, Schools, Fingal Co. Co, Conservation Ireland volunteers, Birdwatch Ireland members, the scouts and residents' associations. Some of the plans include creating wildflower areas, scaling back the managed and mowed green areas and allowing them to return to a wilder state to encourage wildlife, a cultivation programme for the endangered Portrane Poppy, encouraging bird boxes in housing estates, planting more sustainable, native species of plants and shrub, replanting and protecting hedgerows and completing wildlife surveys.

If you have a contribution to make on this plan or want to be involved in any way please let us know: donabatetidytowns@dub.ie or 085 1264660 (Blaithin)

Tidy Towns Judging

In all likelihood the Tidy Towns Judges have been and gone. It is usually June when they make their unannounced visit to judge us. This year we are hoping to increase our marks for litter. We have remained stagnant at 25 marks out of 50 for the past few years, but have made a real effort this year. Next year we will be focussing on biodiversity. Just because the judges have been, does not mean that we have no work to do though. We have been busy judging the Donabate Tidy Towns Best Front Garden Competition and completing other works around the towns as well as keeping our litter rota active.

Village Green Beds replanted

We have replanted our village green beds. This may be the last year of the beds the way they exist now. We are looking into the possibility of replacing the traditional bedding plants with perennial native species that will be more biodiverse....all part of our plan to make Donabate as biodiverse as possible.

Volunters required for litter picking Rota

We all know that due to the "R" word Fingal Co.Co have lots of cutbacks and that services in some areas are suffering as a result. At Donabate Tidy Towns we don't feel that cutbacks should mean that our town looks any worse, so we have a litter picking rota of our own going. If you are interested in signing up to cover an area please let us know. We can supply you with a litter picker, bags, gloves and a fluorescent Tidy Towns vest. E Mail Blaithin at donabatetidytowns@dub.ie or call 085 1264660.

Tidy Towns awareness weekend

We held a Tidy Towns awareness weekend in the Donabate Town Centre on 18th/19th April.
We had a stand manned by Tidy Towns volunteers and the stand detailed our future plans and past projects. There was a lot of interest generated and we now have a whole new bunch of recruits signed up and chomping at the bit to get stuck into some projects.

Donabate Tidy Towns Annual Spring Clean 2009

We are having our annual Spring Clean in Donabate on Sunday 29th April. Meet at 12.30pm outside SuperValu. Last year we collected 48 sacks of rubbish which was fantastic. though I don't know if we will do as well this year as there is noticeably less litter in Donabate these days, due to our more frequent litter patrols. Every child participating gets a certificate. Let's hope for some good weather. We have purchased some new litter pickers to save our backs and we have good supplies of gloves.

See you all there on the day!

Guided Walk around Donabate 31st August 2008

Heritage Week Walk on Sunday 31st August 2008 at 12 noon outside Donabate Train station

This is the third year for this walking tour. It takes about 3-4 hours to complete and is suitable for most walkers. There is plenty of historical information given on the day and the journey will take us through Donabate, St. Ita's Hospital, Portrane, Tower Bay, Cliff Walk and Donabate Beach. Bring rain gear, camera and good shoes or boots. This year Donabate Tidy Towns will be launching their heritage walks of Donabate mini brochure to coincide with the Heritage week walk.
The Waterside House Hotel will be hosting a brochure launch event with entertainment, food and drink for all the walkers on the Heritage walk when they arrive at the hotel which is a stopping point near the end of the walk. Minibus available from the hotel back to the train station after the launch.

Our most recent project was a small display outside St. Patricks Church on Main street. This was kindly sponsered by Kanes Supervalu, Donabate shopping Centre.

Next Project Saturday 31st May 11am Rogerstown Estuary

Dear Tidy Towns volunteer,

Many thanks to those of you who lent a hand to the planting projects at St Patrick's Park on Sunday. It is looking fantastic.
The Links also organised a planting day on the same day and the tree surrounds look great.

Our next project is this Saturday 31st May at 11am. We will be tidying the lane that goes from the Beaverstown Golf Club to the Rogerstown Estuary and along the shore of the Estuary. This laneway and the shoreline is a very important habitat for our flora and fauna, and we hope the removal of accumulated rubbish will help preserve their habitat.

If you have a spare hour please come and join us . Litter bags will be provided and we have some litter pickers also. We have some spare gloves, but bring your own if you have any.

Meet: Beaverstown Road at sign at entrance to Golf Club, 11am, Sat 31st May.

Many thanks

Blaithin
Donabate Tidy Towns

Tel:085 1264660

St Patricks Terrace Project 25 May 12noon.

Our next project is at the request of two of our Junior Volunteers

Sunday 25th May-12 Noon

St Patrick's Terrace entrance. (off the Beach Road-New Road)

We will be landscaping, trimming and tidying the verges at the entrance to St Patrick's Terrace.

If you have a few spare hours please come and join us .

Many thanks

Blaithin

mobile : 085-1264660

The Hand Project

BEFORE

&
AFTER

We can only claim partial credit for this one. By pointing out the deshevelled state of the corner to FCC, they very kindly built a lovely stone wall for us.

Many thanks to Fingal County Council.

Our Great Volunteers

Lunch. Mmmmm.......

The Hand Project

AFTER

A job well done.

Next Project. Saturday 10 May. 2pm at The Hand.

Dear Tidy Towns Volunteer,

It's only a few weeks to go until a Tidy Towns judge will be judging Donabate. It could be anytime in June or July but we seem to get judged the week of the June Bank Holiday weekend.

We need to gear up our efforts to show Donabate in its best light, so we are arranging a planting and maintenance day this Saturday 10th May at 2pm.

We intend
-Replanting the bedding area at "The Hand" (junction of Beaverstown Road and Portrane Road)
-Replanting the area surrounding the Donabate sign beside the Campus petrol station (This has just been beautifully rewalled for us by Fingal Co Co)
-Clearing dead branches etc from the Rose planted area in front of the credit union on the Portrane Road
-Possibility of some other ad hoc jobs depending on numbers of volunteers available.

We would really like you and any of your family or neighbours to give a few spare hours to keep Donabate looking in tip top shape.

Meeting place: The Hand at 2pm this Saturday and we will divide up into teams.
Bring trowels/forks/sweeping brishes if you have any

Please let me know beforehand if possible if you can make it so we have an idea of numbers of volunteers.

Many thanks

Blaithin
Donabate Tidy Towns
Tel:085 1264660

National Spring Clean 2008

A few members of the team

Two Hero's of the Day. The Pride of St. Patrick's Terrace.

The Donabate Stone on the Turvey Avenue

This is the Donabate Stone on the Turvey avenue.

We planted a lot of flower bulbs there this year and the result has been spectacular.

The Donabate Stone on the Hearse Road.

10 May Update. Fingal County Council built this great low wall feature at the request of the Tidy towns. We bought and landscaped it this weekend. Enjoy...

This is the Welcome Stone on the Hearse Road beside the Petrol station. Its's a difficult spot to landscape but we've done our best.

We are hoping the Fingal county Council will help out at this spot in the future.

The Train Station Project

Before
&
After

This was the big project of 2007. Many weekends organising, fundraising and hard work went into it but we are quite proud of the outcome.

The Credit Union Project

Her is the team at the Donabate Credit union project in January 2007.

We cleared a huge amount of debis from the area in order to allow the rose bushes to bloom properly.

And there was a lot of ivy removed from the trees.

Fairways, Donabate.

This was one of the first jobs done. Its a small wishing well at the entrance to Fairways in Donabate Town.

It's just a small project but it was worthwhile because of the lovely effect of colour in the area.

We're hoping to do it again this summer.

Donabate Parish Pump Project

This is the Donabate Parish Pump. It was installed for the citizens of Donabate by the Balrothery District Council back in the 1860's.

It was a bit dilapidated so we gave her a new coat of Hammerite paint and planted flowers in the top opening.

To me it's a bit of a mascot and we hope to be able to add features to it over the coming summer.