Community Council reflects on highlights of busy year
Tallaght Community Council (TCC) held their 2023 AGM on Monday, May 15 in a hybrid meeting.
It was attended by the outgoing 2022 committee and representatives from across the community, current Tallaght Person of the Year, Zak Moradi, SDCC Tidy Towns rep and Dublin South West TDs Francis Duffy, with Niamh Whelan attending for Sean Crowe, TD. John Lahart, TD and Cllr Mick Duff had sent apologies.
Outgoing Voluntary Chair, Liz Kennedy thanked her committee colleagues in her address. She summarised the highlights of 2022/23, including the establishment of a new Tallaght Village Tidy Towns program, holding the 39th Tallaght Person of the Year awards in person, celebrating the 11th National Spring Clean, the 11th An Taisce Spring Clean and the ongoing school Forest program, where the latest school to benefit from the fund was Scoil Carmel.
Liz called out current concerns for the worsening condition of the TJ Byrne cottages on the Old Bawn Road, saying TCC had written letters to the registered owners of the houses, an Isle of Man company, Marbledene Ltd.
She also highlighted a significant planning success won by TCC, for Tallaght village during the last year too – through robust challenging of the proposed over-scaled, basic design and inappropriate layout of a development by St Marys medical in the field beside The Priory within the planning process.
The drastically changed design submitted in late 2022 was eventually approved by SDCC. This significantly altered application saw a vastly superior design, much lower building heights and significantly lower density for this sensitive village location.
Liz also references the recent national accolade of being shortlisted by LAMA in the Best Community CSR category for a project,
“It was nice to be shortlisted in the LAMA awards in April 2023, for our Community Time Capsule for Covid. TCC are all humble, community motivated individuals, who never seek out personal profile or praise for their commitments, the results are just rewards. I was pleased our efforts were formally recognised and rewarded.”
TCC submitted their 2022 accounts, verified independently, to the meeting.
The legally required Trustee Declarations were also submitted to the meeting. The AGM documents will be filed into the Charity Regulator, in line with the rules for registered charities.
Having served four consecutive years, Liz was unable to be proposed for the role of TCC Chair 2023/24.
TCC elected a new Chair, Roderick Smyth, who will be supported by Liz Kennedy as Vice Chair into 2023/24. Looking forward to celebrating the 40th Tallaght Person of the Year Awards this Autumn, Roderick hinted: “We have some big changes in store to mark this milestone in the community awards, I am excited to be at the helm for those.”
