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11th September 2012 • Volume 19, Issue 27 • Leader House, North Street, Swords, Co. Dublin. • Tel: 8•400•200 • info@northcountyleader.ie
Call For Smoke Free Playgrounds With the late surge in fine weather recently after an awful summer, playgrounds across the North County were full of families making the most of the Indian summer. In an effort to maintain this family centred focus of our parks, the County Council has decided to adopt a smoke free policy in all of our local authority controlled playgrounds. However, the antismoking signage has been displayed in only four playgrounds so far, namely Ardgillan Castle, Newbridge Demesne, Malahide Castle and Millennium Park in Dublin 15. The primary aim of the initiative is to discourage people from smoking in a children’s environment, to reduce cigarette litter, e.g butts and cigarette packages thrown on the ground in our parks. The Public Consultation Report revealed that “research was conducted in August 2010, prior to the initiative, to determine levels of second hand smoke in the playground. It also assessed the amount of litter from cigarettes and to gather information from playground users on their smoking behaviour, attitudes to smoke free policies and in particular banning smoking in the playground. This survey of 105 people showed strong support (87 per cent of respondents) for reducing second hand smoke in the playground. The highest number of cigarette butts observed around a single park bench was 27.” Many of the park users, who spoke to the County Leader found that the delay in making all public playgrounds smoke free areas was difficult to understand. At the County Council meeting on Monday 9th July last, the report on
By Patrick Finnegan the Public Consultation on Tobacco Free Playgrounds was presented to the elected members and adopted. Our local authority was the first in Ireland to formally adopt this as a policy and a council
Noel Costello from Swords is pictured with his granddaughter, Lauren in the playground at Newbridge Demesne in Donabate.
spokesperson told the County Leader, “The next step for us is to erect signage at all our public playgrounds, and to use our website/social media and traditional communication channels to raise awareness of this policy. This will be happening over the coming weeks.”
“The signage is in place in our four regional public playgrounds at Millennium Park, Ardgillan Demesne, Newbridge Demesne and Malahide Castle for the moment, and will be rolled out to all of the 50 public playgrounds in Fingal. The Smoke-Free Playgrounds are selfpoliced,” she said. When the County Leader paid a visit to Newbridge Demesne on a beautiful early autumn evening, the playground was full of families enjoying themselves. There were ‘No Smoking’ signs inside the playground, but a playground user pointed out to us” that there were no signs outside the playground to alert smokers as they approached the playground. She felt that this would constitute adequate signage that smoking was prohibited in the playground.” Noel Costello from Swords uses the playground on a regular basis and was enjoying playing with his granddaughter. “I think it’s a very worthwhile project. Neither I nor any of my family members smoke, and I think it would make a big difference to me if smoking were allowed here.” It’s a great environment and I really enjoy it,” he said. Given that there is no legislation to control smoking in playgrounds and that it is a self policing project, the County Leader spoke to Park Ranger at Newbridge, Ilya Usanov, who said: “If I saw someone smoking, I would approach the person and ask him/her to refrain from smoking. That’s all we can do with the current legislation. If the person became difficult, I would report it to my manager and then, perhaps the Gardai. Some people have approached me about smoking in the playground and I have spoken to the persons and the problem was solved without any incidents,” he said. Many parents and park users feel that proper signage outside the playgrounds, at the entrance, would be sufficient to deter smokers from lighting up. Speaking at the launch of the second tobacco free public playground at Rivermeade earlier in the year, Dr Nazih Eldin, Head of Health Promotion HSE Dublin North East said, “Parents and adults are the most important role models for children and supporting people not to smoke around children indoors and outdoors is one of the clearest messages we can give our children.”
North County Towns Do It Again! It was yet another wonderful year for our Tidy Towns contestants, as the results of the 2012 competition were released last Monday. In a glittering ceremony at the Helix Theatre, both Skerries and Malahide retained their Gold medals. Skerries, with a score of 306, improved their points by three and were only six points behind the overall winner, Abbeyshrule, Co Longford. Similarly, Malahide, with 293 points improved their score by two points from last year. Lusk, who came third in the county, improved their figure by an
impressive five points from last year, with an excellent 277 points. There were good performances by Balscadden, up by five points to 257, with new entrants, Ballyboughal scoring an impressive 255 points. Other areas that bettered last year’s positions included, Swords, with 264 points, up five and Balbriggan, up a very impressive 10 points to 251 points. In fact, Balbriggan won the Dublin Endeavour Award, and Skerries landed the Dublin
Regional Award, so well done to the committees there. One of the highlights of the day was the nomination of John Flynn from Lusk Tidy Towns, in the new category of ‘Tidy Town Heroes’. John was one of 13 volunteers from across Ireland to be nominated. Another good performance was that of Rush who scored an impressive 234 points, up 9 points on last year.
See our Special Report in next week’s edition.
John Flynn, from Lusk Tidy Towns committee, was one of 13 nominations in the new award of 'Tidy Towns Heroes.' He is pictured at the Helix Theatre after receiving the nomination.
It Just Keeps Getting Better For Catherine The great news from the Paralympic Games in London just keeps coming for Swords cyclist, Catherine Walsh and her pilot, Fran Meehan. The duo took bronze in the Women’s Individual Time Trial B at Brands Hatch. This is the second medal this duo has won at the Games. Last Sunday week, Catherine and Fran secured a silver medal in the para-cycling individual B pursuit final at the Velodrome. They clocked a time of 35:29.56 to secure their place on the podium. The Netherlands pairing of Kathrin Goeken and Kim Van Dijk took gold in 35:02.73 with the New Zealand tandem featuring Phillipa Gray and Laura Thompson taking silver with a time of 35:07.68. Despite being World Bronze Medallists in this event, the pair were not treating it as a priority event, and were not confident that the course would suit them. However, after their rest day they were able to put in a massive effort to come away with a Bronze medal. Fran Meehan commented, “We have a really strong team, and I think that’s what has moved us on, we support each other, share our advice, and it means we all improve.” President Michael D Higgins congratulated the Paralympians, when he said, “I want to sincerely congratulate our Team Ireland on their outstanding performance at the London Paralympic Games. This team has won 16 medals, eight gold, three silver, and five bronze; what a remarkable achievement.” “Our Paralympian athletes are inspirational role models for us all. Their courage, commitment and sporting prowess will live long in the hearts and minds of the Irish people. I look forward to meeting them in Áras an Úachtaráin in the near future and to congratulating them in person.” President Higgins also confirmed that he will host a reception for our Olympic athletes in Áras an Uachtaráin on Friday, 21st September. Pictured above Swords lady, Catherine Walsh proudly celebrates her bronze medal with her son Conor Roode, after finishing third in the women's individual B time trial at the London 2012 Paralympic Games.