Welcome your new Clare PPN Representatives:
Congratulations to Cornelia Wahli, Christy Sinclair and Collette Bradley we look forward to working with you all.
We are delighted to let you know that we received nominations for each of three representative roles we advertised to our member groups on April 20th 2021. We are most grateful to all groups who nominated and in particular to the three candidates who have come forward to represent their communities through Clare PPN.
The vacant Environmental Seat on Clare PPN’s Secretariat will be taken up by Cornelia Wahli who was nominated by Clare Environmental Network and who also represents Clare PPN on Clare County Council’s Local Community Development Committee. As part of the Secretariat Cornelia will join 9 other community representatives to help to run Clare PPN on behalf of its member groups between plenary meetings.
The second environment seat- on Clare County Council’s Rural Development Forum goes to Christy Sinclair – nominated by Clare Environmental Network. Christy was one of the founder members of Clare PPN, his interests are environmental sustainability and social justice and he will make a valuable contribution to the ongoing work of the forum.
The third and final seat in this set of elections was for a Social Inclusion Representative to sit on Clare’s Local Community Development Committee and this seat goes to Collette Bradley of Shannon Family Resource Centre. Collette’s experience in community development and support for marginalised communities will be of great value to the LCDC.
We are so grateful to all who came forward, the ratification of these seats will take place at our plenary meeting which is taking place on May 11th online (contact admin@clareppn.ie if you would like to attend this meeting). Following the plenary we will write to each committee chair notifying them of our nominations and this will complete the formal nomination process.
You can read more about each new representative here:
Cornelia Wahli:
Cornelia’s participation in and membership of several environmental groups, including CEN – Clare Environmental Network, emerges from a deep-felt belief that the current man-made climate crisis, which has lead to global warming and loss of biodiversity, can be healed, but only with individual, societal, corporate and political input and action.
Cornelia lives an organic lifestyle without chemicals in her kitchen, utility room, bathroom and garden using vinegar, bread soda and lemon juice instead, sparingly. She believes that a lifestyle change with similar intensity like that imposed by covid-19 is necessary to assure and ensure a continued ‘food and clean water supply’ for now and the future. Cornelia’s vision is of an ‘Organic County Clare’ that is organic in public spaces, in private gardens as well as in agriculture, horticulture, aquaculture, silviculture and arboriculture. Such an ‘organic approach’ can facilitate the protection of the environment welcoming diversity of biological life-forms to flourish and allowing our soil, water and air to return to their natural clean state. Cornelia would like to be a voice for the natural world, a healthy and nurturing environment that is capable of feeding and supporting humans as well as fauna and flora with sustainable development a core value. Cornelia also represents Clare PPN’s member groups as the Environmental Representative for Clare PPN on Clare’s Local Community Development Committee (LCDC) since autumn 2020.
Christy Sinclair:
Christy Sinclair was one of the founding members of Clare PPN. He previously served as a Secretariat member and as part of the finance subcommittee. He specialises in the installation and certification of photo-valtic systems and is a keen environmentalist, rock climber and greyhound adopter. He has been involved with a number of community groups in Clare including the Burren Eco Tourism Network and Clare Bus where he served as a board member. His interests are in securing a ‘living wage’ for those working in Clare and ensuring that communities are takings steps towards sustainable energy use. He will bring all these interests to represent Clare PPN’s member groups on the Rural Development Forum.
Collette Bradley:
For the past 6 years Colette Bradley has been the coordinator of Shannon Family Resource Centre and is committed to the delivery and further development of services and activities for the local community. She also recognises the need for more community services for Shannon and the surrounding areas. Prior to Colette’s Coordination position in Shannon she worked in the Community & Voluntary Sector for 12 years based in Ennis.
Colette was a voluntary member of a number of committees over the years including the group which oversaw the establishment of a community crèche and a resource centre, now North West Clare Family Resource Centre, in Ennistymon.
Colette is committed to working towards a more equal society and recognises social inclusion, equal opportunities and environmental protection as key building blocks to the achievement of a fairer and more progressive society.
She feels privileged to call beautiful North Clare her home living in Lisdoonvarna and prior to that in Kilfenora since moving to Co. Clare from Co. Wicklow in 1998.
You can read more here about the Rural Development Strategy here:
https://www.clarecoco.ie/services/community/rural-development/strategy/
And more here about the Local Community Development Committee:
https://www.clarecoco.ie/services/community/lcdc/