Fingal County Council is to hold a series of public consultation events to promote a greater understanding of the Draft Development Plan 2023-2029.

A webinar was held online on Tuesday, March 22, followed by four drop-in events in different locations across the county. At each event staff from the Planning and Strategic Infrastructure Department was available to brief the publicand answer questions on the Draft Development Plan.The Malahide Drop-In event will take place between 4pm and 8pm on the following date: April 20 -The Lecture Room, Malahide Library, Malahide.The Mayor of Fingal, Cllr Seána Ó Rodaigh said: “The webinar and drop-in events are excellent opportunities for members of the public to learn more about the Development Plan from members of the Fingal County Council Planning Department. The Development Plan will affect every individual, family and community so it is important that citizens are aware of it and make submissions on what they like and don’t like in it.” Fingal County Council’s Director of Planning and Strategic Infrastructure, Matthew McAleese, said: “Going out and explaining the Development Plan to citizens is a very important part of the consultation process and we look forward to meeting people at the drop-in events or speaking to them on the webinar. I am sure they will have plenty of questions and our planning team are looking forward to engaging with them over the coming weeks.Queries can be also forwarded to Fingal.DevelopmentPlan@fingal.ie.” The Draft Development Planis available for download from the fingal.ie/developmentplan website. It can also be inspected at Fingal County Council’s offices in Swords and Blanchardstown or any Fingal Libraries branch. Submissions on the Draft Development Plan must be received by 11.59pm on May 12 and can be made online at www.consult.fingal.ie or by post to the Development Plan Team, Planning and Strategic Infrastructure Department, Fingal County Council, County Hall, Main St., Swords, Co. Dublin, K67X8Y2.

In recent months our National Governing Body , Taekwondo Ireland, in conjunction with Junsa Taekwondo and other member clubs have put together a series of small tournaments for beginners right through to the higher grades. As an NGB we are starting to focus on the grass roots players and hopefully future Olympians. Have a look at our clubs competition preparations here!

Junsa Taekwondo train in the Lusk scout den three times a week and we have Specific classes for each age group and also programs that suit everyone. At the moment our beginner and intermediate classes only have a few spaces and the advanced is filling up fast.Please contact Master Stuart Russell for further class details. We hope that everyone had a well deserved St. Patrick’s holiday and are all looking forward to Easter.

It has been a very busy and successful February and March for Lusk Athletic Club as our Juvenile and master’s athletes competed Indoors in Abbotstown and Athlone in various Track and Field events with great success. Lusk AC athletes also competed in cross country in Dunleer on what was a memorable day for the horrible weather conditions, on the road at the Dungarvan 10 Mile and we had an amazing 33 athletes run the Bohermeen Half Marathon on the 13th March. Sunday 6th March saw the welcome return of the LUSK 4 Mile race with close to 600 runners taking part on what was a fantastic day for the club. Lusk AC had close to 60 members running the race and another 100 members volunteering to ensure the race went smoothly. The club received many compliments on the great hospitality afforded to all competitors and on the excellent Medal, T-Shirt and goodie bag for all finishers. Lusk AC would like to thank everybody who helped with the race, the local community, race sponsors and most especially the athletes who came and ran the race.

Fingal County Council welcomes the award of €48,600 in new funding for the Cultural Centre project in Lusk. The funding is provided by the Department of Rural and Community Development under the 2021 Town and Village Renewal Scheme Project Development Measure. The funding is aimed at helping communities through the planning and identification of enhancements in public spaces together with an emphasis on supporting remote working options in rural communities. Fingal County Council looks forward to working with Lusk Community Council in the delivery of the project which will benefit the wider community in Lusk and surrounding areas. The funding is provided to conduct preliminary site investigation works and planning studies to facilitate the advancement of a Phase Two Development of the Lusk Cultural Centre project to planning and construction stages. Welcoming the announcement of the new funding by the Minister for Rural and Community Development, Heather Humphries, TD, the Mayor of Fingal, Cllr Seána Ó Rodaigh, said, “I welcome the announcement from the Minister. Funding from the Town and Village Renewal Scheme to help progress worthwhile projects is very helpful in the ongoing enhancement of the public realm in the county.” The Town and Village Renewal Scheme is provided through the Department of Rural and Community Development to promote rural and community development and to support vibrant, inclusive and sustainable communities throughout Ireland.

Well done to our senior Athletic Union League coaches Steven and James, pictured here at the presentation Night for the FAIreland National D License for the AUL Coaches who took part. huge thank you to Permanent TSB and Eddie and Karl who were a massive part of making this course happen. Well done coaches #workhard #havefun.

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As the Covid pandemic fades into our history, Europe and the World is facing a new crisis with Russia’s war on Ukraine. The news stories and images of Ukrainians fighting for their country’s independence is a story that Ireland is all too familiar with, however the scale of the Ukrainian crisis is beyond belief. As we welcome many Ukrainians to our country, we still ask ourselves how can we help? On the 12th March Lusk Community Council raised the Ukrainian Flag over its 1916 Memorial as a symbol of friendship between our countries. We were honoured that a recent emigrant from Ukraine, Svitlana Turlo, raised the Ukrainian Flag in Lusk. As a further sign of our shared friendship, we presented Ireland’s Tricolor to Svitlana. In a truly inspirational speech, Svitlana committed to fly Ireland’s national flag in Ukraine, when she gets to return to her home. The relevance of the 1916 Proclamation was aligned with the modern day crisis by Councillor Cathal Boland, when he recited a section of the Proclamation and inter-changed Irish references to Ukrainian references as follows: “ We place the cause of the Ukrainian Republic under the protection of the Most High God. Whose blessing we invoke upon our arms and we pray that no one who serves that cause will dishonour it by cowardice, inhumanity, or rapine. In this supreme hour the Ukrainian nation must, by its valour and discipline, and by the readiness of its children to sacrifice themselves for the common good, prove itself worthy of the august destiny to which it is called.”

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We recently held our 2 nd AGM and wish to thank everyone who attended. LAG is proud to be a voice for the people of Lusk and will continue to do our best to help shape how Lusk develops for the benefit of us all. After two years of being the main driving force behind the LAG we wish to thank Lynne Barker, who is stepping down as Chair of the group in keeping with our constitution, for all that she has done and the selfless dedication that she has demonstrated for the benefit of our town. Lusk appreciates you and all that you have done on our behalf Lynne. Our new Chairperson will be Colin Browne and Lynne will remain on our committee and continue to be an active part of the group. With our proposed Summer Festival having received approval from Fingal Co Co, we now need help from the community to make it happen. We will need musicians, entertainers, people to help with the multicultural section, people to give a few hours to help marshal the event and financial support (keep an eye on our FB page for further details). Please get in touch if you can help out in any way. Lusk Community Clean-Up Group will be holding their annual Spring Clean week from the 2 nd – 9 th April. All help is always welcome and greatly appreciated. Meeting at The Square at 12:30pm on Saturday 2 nd April. Contact Willie McGee for further information at willie.mcgee73@hotmail.com. As always, we are on the look out for new members of Lusk Action Group. If you have drive, enthusiasm, care about the future of our town and have some time to spare, please consider joining us. You can email us on luskactiongroup@gmail.com.

At the Area Operations Meeting Councillor Rob O’Donoghue warmly welcomed the inclusion of funding to be spent on road and active travel infrastructure in the coming calendar year in the Lusk area. He commented, ‘I am delighted with that the works that have been included and will be pushing for other areas in the town that need attention to be considered for upgrade through other funding streams.’ Works listed under the 2022 Programme of Works include footpath upgrades at Treen Hill and Dun Emer, road resurfacing of Hannah’s Avenue, drainage works on Ministers Road/Hands Lane, lighting on Hands Lane and the installation of additional footpaths through the Orlynn Park Green Space. In addition, over €500k has been earmarked through the Capital Roads Programme for the upgrading of the R132 and as part of the NTA’s Allocation for Active Travel Projects, Ministers Road to Blakes Cross and Kilhedge Lane have had funding allocated for the construction of new protected cycle lanes and Safe Routes to School at Corduff National School. Cllr O’Donoghue stated that ‘detailed design has been carried out on this stretch of cycleway and this design is currently under review by our Active Travel Engineering Team in FCC. I am pleased to see that this project is included on our works programme for delivery later this year.’

Classes for Active Age for All are in full swing with very few empty spaces. People are so delighted to be back to real-time classes once more. It has been most gratifying for the Committee to see how everyone is enjoying being together again and to see the return of some structure to the social lives of our members.Our latest project is to offer free English classes to our fellow Europeans from Ukraine who are in Donabate, in many cases, join their families. We are doing this in conjunction with the Community Centre. We are also offering free membership in Active Age for All and its classes, until the summer, for all of our recent Ukranian refugees. If you know anyone who would like to avail of these offers please contact the Donabate/Portrane Community Centre or email us at activeageforall@gmail.com or see our website activeageforall.com Or text only to 086 880 6808

Lambay Sports Athletic (LSA) continues to grow. As a local athletics club we consistently strive towards helping our members to accomplish personal achievements and club acclamations. As a club we welcome all levels of adult and juveniles to join us and offer support to our members who choose to compete in organized events country wide. Some of our award-winning competitors since our last update have competed in NIA Live, our chairperson has won medals for Ireland at the European Masters Indoor Championship in Portugal, all levels of members participated in the Lusk AC 4-mile race in Lusk village, and most recently club members traveled to Bohermeen in Co. Meath to compete in the Bohermeen AC Half Marathon. Our Juvenile Section caters for children and teenagers from age 6 to 18. Our Thursday training sessions continue to grow with almost 70 children training at 6pm and another 50 training at 7pm at the Astro hockey pitch. The younger children’s ‘Little Athletics’ group introduces a fun-based approach to Running, Jumping and Throwing. Our 7pm group, for children born in 2011 and older, focuses on learning to train and compete in all athletics events. Our athletes from U10 and up will have an opportunity to try outdoor competition in a full-size athletics facility in the Dublin Track and Field Leagues in April and May. In addition, we have a plan to run our three-day Summer Camp 2022. LSA are currently in the process of organizing our very own race which will take place on the scenic peninsula of Donabate and Portrane on 22nd May 2022. This will also include children’s events. The club of LSA look forward to working with the local community and inviting their friends from other clubs from across the country to compete. Keep up to date on all the events by following LSA via our social media pages! Facebook www.facebook.com/lambaysportsacademy Instagram www.instagram.com/lsadonabateportrane/ Twitter twitter.com/LSARunning For additional information on the above please visit our website lambaysportsathletics.ie/ or pop us an email lambaysportsathletics@gmail.com