Swan Park in Buncrana.
In March this year the smoking ban became law. Trasna House in Ballyliffen was the first pub to introduce the ban opening a few weeks before the law came in.
On the opening night of Trasna House in Ballyliffen the response to the smoke free policy was very positive. If anyone wanted to smoke they went out onto the large patio at the rear of the building. There were a few long-term smokers who never even bothered to go outside the whole of the evening. There was a feeling of fun for those who made an effort to go outside and light up. There was only one instance of someone flouting the policy and the person responsible burnt a hole in the new carpet as he carelessly stubbed the butt out on the ground. Michael feels that the smoke free building will also deter the casual smokers who light a cigarette up only when they have had a few pints. The fact that they have to get up off their comfy chairs and go outside will make people think what they are doing and stop themselves from accepting a cigarette from a friend.
Lisfannon was in the news before Christmas where it is claimed that the dredging isn’t working and the Lifeboat Institution are concerned about the service they can provide at low tides. Clean and Green have had concerns throughout the year on what has been happening at Lisfannon. Here is a clip from a letter published last June.
Over the last week at Lisfannon beach the diggers have moved thousands of tonnes of boulders onto the beach. This is to make a storage pit for the silt that is to be dredged out of the Swilly, which will allow the new ferry access to the pier. A good section of the beach was lost when the golf course expanded and now we are losing a load more. The council say that a set of steps will be put in place so walkers can leave the beach, walk over the golf course and down some more steps to get onto the sand again. That does not really take into account people with disabilities. The coastline will change and what will happens when this pit is full of silt? The silt won’t stop coming to shore because the pit is full, you only have to look at the marina in Faughan to see that. Will the council build another one of these pits, taking up more of the beach? The ferry will hopefully attract tourists to come to the town, they will be greeted by thousands of tonnes of stone covering what once was a lovely stretch of sand, now that’s what I call premeditated vandalism!
Regards, N.S. Buncrana
I went to Lisfannon to see the work for myself. The silt, as you say won’t stop coming when these pits are full. I don’t know much about how silt moves in an estuary but I would have thought that it would be as effective to put the silt collected back into the Swilly as opposed to dumping it on the beach. This work will be an ongoing process now that it has started. I have no doubt that the ferry will be a positive move to improve the infrastructure of the town and will attract tourists to the area. Let’s just hope they still want to come when the developers have finished!
The peninsula has developed a lot. The highly successful Festival Park (Buncrana) opened in May and Clean and Green made a plea to continue to plan for green spaces.
As our towns expand, land is getting more and more valuable to everyone but green belts should be considered. I’m not talking about a small patch of greenery where the builder couldn’t squeeze another house onto an estate because of planning restrictions. I’m talking about using natural features (like a river walk or shore path), to create public walk-ways, parks, big public expanses of greenery and trees (maybe even an arboretum for an added attraction) where any-one can walk, play and get away from the hustle and bustle into a peaceful place. Once land has been developed it’s lost to us. Creating parks is an expensive business, but the rewards go far beyond monetary value, it’s a quality of life, not just for us but also for our children and grandchildren’s children.
New Year is a time for resolutions and new starts. In September clean and green wrote about Feng Shui –which may be a nice way to clean your life up for the new year ahead.
Feng Shui or “Wind and water” is based on oriental practices over 4000 years old. Feng Shui, is now becoming more recognised in the West as an art which creates balance and harmony in the environment. It has mistakenly been seen as another form of interior design. It is much more than this. It is the understanding of the flow of energies in our home and workplaces and how these affect our lives. In Feng Shui the home is seen as a mirror, reflecting our states of mind, past experiences, aspirations and current life situations. After all a cluttered home leads to a cluttered mind! Using the principles of Feng Shui we can learn to identify an imbalance of energy and set about healing it with specific enhancements.
