Clare County Council – Local Community and Development Committee
Meeting 24th February 2021 @ 11am – 12.30pm
Meeting Notes by Cornelia Wahli, Environmental Representative Clare PPN, 25.2.2021
- Minutes and matters arising
“Climate Change as an agenda item”
Discussion on how “Climate change as an agenda item” was being handled by other LCDCs. The feedback was that while SPCs were the appropriate fora for climate change discussions, the LCDCs were not. Also, it would be inappropriate to have an agenda item for the sake of having the agenda item.
Statements made in agreement and disagreement of above feedback.
Cornelia Wahli elaborated at length as to the need and necessity of having such an agenda point. She accepted that no LCDC had such an agenda item but that such an item was necessary and that the Clare LCDC could lead here. Cornelia Wahli made various strong points that the current status quo was no longer acceptable and applicable and therefore a new point of view needed to be adopted by all committees and departments regardless whether currently viewed as relevant or not. The point made was that Climate Change is relevant everywhere at any time and therefore a new standpoint needed to be adopted/a new status quo. Open the door to green thinking.
Conclusion:
- Green agenda item adopted per se but not for every meeting, maybe every second meeting
- Suggestion that maybe Cornelia Wahli could give a presentation. Cornelia Wahli welcomed an opportunity to do so.
- Is it possible that after all of the presentations made to the LCDCs that there is still a void and blank when it comes to Climate Action and Biodiversity?
Target: To have a green agenda item ready for the next meeting.
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- LCDC Membership:
4 members have reached the end of their term. A follow up email was sent and has been received in relation to this, i.e if one knew of someone interested in taking up the vacant positions.
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- SICAP update
Traveller movement / Traveller organization point was raised. Response was that various measures were in place for Travellers. Response was made that various “bodies” including Clare PPN were collaborating at the moment to improve the situation for Travellers.
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- Covid 19 Funding
- Covid 19 issues / poverty
Both points were dealt with as one point.
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- Any Other Business
- LECP (Local Economic and Community Plan). Pointed out that new plans are founded on old data, i.e. out of date census statistics etc are used. Request that for the new LECP, the census data from census 2021 (which I believe was moved to 3.4.2022 because of Covid 19) The new LECP review starting shortly, March: draft/guidelines, April: roll-out. No proper dates available yet but happening in the next two years. Some guess work as to when. Proper information to follow.
- Cornelia Wahli referred to the point of funding (see above points 4 and 5); asking whether a mechanism was in place where a community (group) that had received public funding could showcase their achievements. The point was raised since, as a newcomer to the committee, it was not clear, not visible to Cornelia Wahli what the outcome of the public funding was. This point was taken on board by the committee finding that it could be valuable to see in which locations and what type of projects received funding. Showcasing community efforts once a year on a voluntary basis was viewed positively.
Conclusion: It would be very interesting for this committee to see how much funding goes to each village and town in total (location) as well as the types of projects that were more frequently successful (projects), also it would be interesting to see how many of the projects had “green” credentials.
Target: Submit “achievements showcase” as one “green agenda item” for the next meeting based on the “green” credentials point.