Ardee Age-Friendly Action Plan

Initiative title: Ardee Age Friendly Town Reach: County:

[  ] Local Louth

Theme:

[ ] Lead healthier & active lives for longer [ ] Stay living in our own homes and communities [ ] Get to where we need to go, when we need to [  ] Be enabled by the built and social environment [ ] Feel and be safe at home and out and about [ ] Have the information we need to live full lives [  ] Be truly valued and respected [  ] Participate in social, economic and public life [  ] Continue to learn, develop and work

[ ]

National

Contact:

Mary Deery, Administrative Office, Louth Local Authorities, County Hall, Dundalk 042 9324 389 Mobile 086 803 2686

Website: www.louthagefrienldycounty.ie

Approx. Location of new Pedestrian Crossing

Approx. Location of new Pedestrian Crossing

Issue/ Opportunity: The Ardee Area Development Plan was due to be reviewed in 2010. To build on the WHO’s guidelines for Age Friendly Cites, Louth County Council invited the LOPF to make a submission during the public consultation period of the development phase of the plan. The key issue in Ardee is that the N2 is also the main street in Ardee causing challenges for pedestrians. In the past there had been a fatality on the main street.

What was done: The Louth Age Friendly Project Manager convened a meeting with the Ardee representatives to the LOPF and agreed a process to garner the maximum input from the people of Ardee. Ageing Well Network engaged the services of a graduate planner who was supervised by Mr Conor Skehan, DIT to do a mapping exercise on the town, carry out one to one interviews and write up the results of a public consultation session in Ardee.

The reps mobilised interested parties in developing Ardee as an Age Friendly Town including, Nursing Homes, Louth Leader Partnership, Rural Transport, Gardai, HSE, Older People’s Groups, Resident’s groups, Tidy Towns and individuals. Areas covered in the submission included: Housing, Mobility, Public Facilities, Recreation and Amenities, Economy and Employment and the Town Centre. A full toolkit on the public consultation session can be found on www.louthagefriendlycounty.ie The submission was not successful, however Louth County Council agreed an action plan based on the key areas of action identified during the consultation sessions. As a result, a subgroup was formed to work with the Ardee—Mid Louth Area Engineer in Louth County Council to discuss the positioning of traffic lights, pedestrian crossings, seating, the installation of adult exercise equipment in the Fairgreen and signage on walking routes. The subgroup is made up of LCC engineers and town clerk, HSE, An Garda Siochana, Tidy Towns, Ardee Active Retirement, Ardee Retailers Association, IWA and the Girls Primary School.

In tandem with the physical development of Ardee, the Age Friendly Business Forum developed a business recognition scheme where 35 businesses signed up to becoming Age Friendly. Moorehall Lodge Nursing Home and St Joseph’s Nursing Home in Ardee developed the Teaghlach model of Nursing Home Care known as Places to Flourish developed by DkIT, Netwell Centre and School of Nursing, University of Ulster. For further information please log on to http://www.placestoflourish.org/

Key achievements: The key achievement was that consensus was achieved by the Ardee Active Retirement Group, the Tidy Towns Group, the Retailers Association and the IWA on the positioning of the Pedestrian Crossings, seats, exercise equipment etc. This resulted in the Area Engineer taking some challenging decisions to address the various issues identified.

Pedestrian crossings, railings, seats, traffic lights and exercise equipment were all provided through the mainstream budgets located at places agreed by the subgroup.

Safety and security was addressed by improving the public lighting, cutting hedges and opening up areas to cut down on anti-social behaviour.

For further information log on to www.louthagefriendlycounty.ie