In what is believed to be a first in Ireland, Fingal County Council has launched an ambitious new project that aims to reimagine housing estates as thriving spaces for both people and wildlife.

To help deliver a vision for greener and more vibrant communities, the council is now inviting local resident associations to nominate their area for a biodiversity makeover. The aim is to help transform underused or uncared for areas within a housing area into biodiversity-friendly space, creating areas that are more welcoming for nature, more engaging for locals, and more attractive for residents and visitors alike.

Urban areas offer great opportunities for wildlife. However, it is not always clear how to create the ideal urban habitat for a wide range of species. To help breathe new life into our urban spaces, making them greener, more beautiful, and more connected to nature, Fingal wishes to undertake a biodiversity makeover of three housing estates across the county to identify the most cost-effective way to make a housing estate more biodiversity friendly.

The makeover will cover the open spaces and front gardens of those residents interested in making their own gardens more biodiversity friendly. The species groups being targeted are breeding birds, bats, amphibians and insects. Biodiversity improvement measures include meadows, tree and scrub planting, ponds and wetlands, log piles, bird and bat boxes, no pesticide use and pollinator friendly garden planting.

Once the three housing estates are selected, a landscape architect will work with the local residents to re-design their open space and an ecologist will carry out a baseline survey to see what wildlife is there at the moment. The design is to be done over the summer months and we hope to carry out the improvement works in early autumn.

The ecologist will be monitoring the wildlife in the housing estate over the five years of the project to see which measures have the most beneficial impact on wildlife. The Council wants to involve the residents in the monitoring so that they too can get a good understanding what wildlife lives on their doorstep.
Resident Associations can learn more about the concept and find application details via: https://fingal.live/2p9czpmx. The deadline for submitting applications is 2nd May 2025. Any queries regarding this initiative can also be sent to biodiversity@fingal.ie.