Council aquires schools site for Tyrrelstown

The acquisition of a permanent school site for Tyrrelstown should be completed by Wednesday January 20^th according to Fingal County Council officials. They were responding to a question I had put at this weeks local area meeting of the council.

“All legal requirements to complete the purchase of the school site at Tyrrelstown on behalf of the Department of Education and Science have been met by Fingal County Council.”

“Assuming that all requirements are met on the part of the vendor and that all documents and paperwork required of the vendor are in order, we are scheduled to complete the purchase of this land on Wednesday, January 20.”

The council must now transfer the site to the Department and fast track planning permission so that the schools can be built in time for next September. A community/sports centre will be built in conjunction with the school.

The welcome news marks the end of a long-running and frustrating battle between the landowner the council and the Department of Education.  Let’s hope this is the end of the Tyrrelstown Schools saga.  We’ve been told so many times before that the deal was nearing completion only for talks to collapse yet again.  At many stages over the last 18 months or so it felt like things were moving backward rather than forward.

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Fingal County Council sending out water tankers to provide emergency water supplies

Reservoirs are filling up but not fast enough for D 15 areas see new message from Water Services below

EMERGENCY WATER SUPPLY UPDATE 9am Saturday 16th January

Water pressure will be reduced in all areas in the coming days, from 10pm each night until 6am the following morning to allow reservoirs to fill.

Tankers and standpipes will provide emergency water supplies today from 10am to 4pm or while demand exists at the following locations:

Lanesborough Estate, Dublin 11 - Tanker

Garristown Inn - Standpipe

Howth Summit - Tanker

Unexpected local problems with bursts, airlocks or pumps may mean that some areas do not get a water supply back at the time estimated here.
Garristown/Oldtown area - Garristown Village should have water. Wider area still affected by a burst watermain
Lanesborough/Melville - This area gets water from Dublin City where water levels are still critical.  The City will provide an intermittent supply to this area from Friday 15th onwards. All available supply should be conserved. A tanker will be provided in this area as long as there is disruption to this supply.
High areas of Howth - Reservoirs filling slowly in this area. Howth summit should have water by today.
Continuing water conservation in the coming days is the key to allowing our reservoirs to refill and to restore a water supply across Fingal.  The Council will have to continue to restrict water supply at night throughout the weekend and into next week.
Regular updates will be posted to our Website, Aertel P624 and Twitter as soon as they are available.

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Dublin runs low on water

Water pressure has had to be reduced today and for the forseeable future as levels in the reservoirs get dangerously low. The main reason is that people have been leaving their taps running during the cold snap in order to prevent pipes freezing. While the treatment plants are operating at record capacity they simply cannot keep up with demand.

The Water network is not like an electrical grid where supply can be switched around. For technical reasons the supply cannot be turned off and on as some pressure must be maintained in the system. Unfortunately reduced pressure means that some areas at higher elevations receive no supply at all.  See the Councils press release.

PRESS RELEASE

Fingal County Council Water Supplies Critical - 7pm Monday 11th January

- Throttling restrictions must continue

- Public supply not cut off

- Some residents without water due to low pressure

As a result of record breaking peaks in water usage across Dublin in recent days, reservoirs in the Fingal County Council area are at a critically low level. In order to recharge water storage and return to normal supply levels, Council Engineers are currently “throttling” water supplies across the whole county. Throttling means reducing the volume of water going into the network from the reservoir.  

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Christmas Tree Recycling Points in Dublin 15

Open from 5th - 13th January 2010 

• Auburn Avenue/Castleknock Park open space
• Carpenterstown Park East, Castleknock
• Corduff Park, Blanchardstown
• Hartstown Park car park
• Millennium Park, Coolmine – car park
• Blakestown Road/Blakestown Way junction, Whitestown
• Littlepace Park,  Castaheany, Clonee

Coolmine Parks Depot, phone 821 3486   

Please note that Christmas trees only will be accepted at the above locations, other green waste, Christmas tree stands etc will not be accepted. 
See other recycling points here

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Government 'wastes' €1m on translations into Irish

By DANIEL McCONNELL Chief Reporter
Sunday December 27 2009

Cabinet ministers are "wasting" hundreds of thousands of euro a year on expensive, unnecessary translations of official documents into Irish, new figures reveal.
Despite having in-house translation services within government departments, figures given to the Sunday Independent show that most have been reliant on highly expensive external translators to provide copies of documents in Irish.
In total, almost €1m of taxpayers' money has gone on producing copies of documents in Irish.

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Fingal to reduce commercial rates by 10.5%

Pro-business initiative from a pro-business Council a boost for employers

Fine Gael Councillor, Kieran Dennison, has welcomed the committment made on Monday by Fingal County Council to reduce rates by 10%, saying the draft budget is a much needed shot in the arm for local businesses and local jobs.

“The decision to drop rates by 10% is to be commended and shows Fingal County Council as the pro- enterprise Council it is. Special tribute must be paid to the County Manager and the staff in bringing this initiative forward. Fingal traditionally has the lowest rate increases and has avoided borrowing for day to day spending. Had the Government been as responsible, it too might have been in a position to introduce a stimulus plan similar to the one being introduced in Fingal.
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Translating documents into Irish costs €3,000 a week

By John Walshe Education Editor
Irish Independent Friday December 18 2009

THE government department charged with reviving Irish in schools is spending €3,000 a week getting documents translated into the language.

The Department of Education and Science spent more than €426,000 over a two-and-a-half year period on translation services, the Irish Independent has learned.

The lack of language and administrative capacity was blamed last night for the outsourcing of so much work.

School inspectors are expected to have a competent level of fluency but administrative staff in the department are not obliged to have Irish.

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Coolmine Recycling Centre - Opening Hours

Open Wednesday to Saturday from 9.00am to 4.00pm
Closed Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays

Phone: 01-8219475

Please note: in very windy conditions the recycling centre may have to close for Health & Safety Reasons.

The recycling centre is for household use only. No commercial waste will be accepted on site.

The recycling centre is located in Coolmine Industrial Estate, beside the Fire Station and Fingal County Council Transportation Depot.

You can download the location sketch below for more precise directions.

• Download Coolmine Location Map - pdf - 570kbs

What Householders can bring to Coolmine Recycling Centre

Accepted Free of charge:

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Snowtopia Appeal Fails at Planning Board

An Bord Pleanála has upheld Fingal County Council’s rejection of the proposed Snowtopia development at Tyrrelstown. The reasons given were that it would conflict with local land zoning objectives (ST1 - Science and Technology), would draw custom from the nearby Blanchardstown cinema, and was poorly served by public transport.

The €100m indoor ski resort would have created 1,000 permanent jobs. Twinlite and Cobalt  Developments , who planned the 32,000sqm development, claim it was a fully funded project and had hoped to begin work next year. They have already spent €300,000 on planning and had the backing of an English venture capital company.

It was intended that Snowtopia would feature two ski slopes, a rock and ice climbing area and a high-level adventure playground. The company expected up to 1.5 million visitors a year to attractions including a paintball centre, digital theatres, a gym, restaurants and retail outlets.

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Bin Tags Change Colour

Fingal County Council’s Bin Tags have been re-designed, with yellow being replaced with purple and red being replaced with green.  The new stock will be on sale in shops from Monday 30th November 2009.
Yellow and Red Tags will be accepted at our Recycling Centres and on our black bins until January 4th 2010.

For Customers who have a surplus of the yellow or red tags, they can be exchanged as follows.
Customer to write their full name, address and telephone number on each tag to be exchanged.
All returns to be sent to

Teresa Cusack
Senior Staff Officer
Waste Charges Section,
Finance Department,
Fingal County Council
County Hall
Swords,
Co. Dublin.

For queries please email wastecharges@fingalcoco.ie or telephone 01 8905009 or 01 8906250
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