Annual Fund Raising Collection

Dear Resident,

The 2015 Ashefield Residents Annual Fund Raising Collection has commenced. The funds collected are used in the upkeep of the common areas in the estate. The main expense incurred is the grass cutting in the large green areas.

With a view to continuing this work the Resident Association Committee Members have commenced visiting home in the estate requesting a contribution of €20 per household (reduced from €30 in 2013). To make things easier we have a PayPal account on www.ashefield.com into which your contribution may be paid.

(It cost over €1300 to cut the grass and do other minor repairs in 2014. We post details of the accounts on this website

The collection has been well supported in the past and we are sure that we can rely on your support once again this year. We realise that we all have extra pressures due to Household Charge and Property Tax. However despite home owners paying these the County Councils are not providing any additional services. Therefore as always the responsibility falls on all the residents to keep the common areas.

This requests is being made to all residents; be the renting their home or are it’s owner. However if those renting their home feel that this request is better directed to their landlord we would appreciate if they forwarded this note to their landlord.

Estate Spring Clean – Fri 17th April

Hi all – I know this is short notice but some residents have generously volunteered to take part in an estate Spring clean this evening, Friday April 17.

All volunteers are most welcome – even if you spare just 30 mins. There will be rubbish bags available. It is also an excellent opportunity to meet some of your neighbours.

The start time is between 6-6.30pm and starting point will be in the vicinity of houses 145-152.

Huge thanks to Alma, Karl & Yvonne for taking the initiative.

Hope you can join!

Roadsweeper in Ashefield

Following a request by an Ashefield resident, the residents association contacted Cllr. Ken Glynn who kindly arranged for the roadsweeper to visit Ashefield on Monday 30th March at approx. 11am.

Many thanks to Cllr. Ken Glynn for arranging this. If you would like to raise any issue affecting the common areas of the estate, there are a number of options to do so:

  1. Ashefield residents association : info [AT] ashefield.com
  2. Cllr. Ken Glynn
  3. Westmeath County Council

Typically, the residents association will ask Cllr. Glynn for help in matters that may require county council attention e.g. public lighting, littering/dumping, anti-social activities. However any resident or member of the public can contact Westmeath County Council directly. Please feel free to do so as this can be the quickest method to alert them of an issue in the area.

Adversely affected by the economic crisis? – request for participation

Hi all – received the following request for input from residents of Mullingar:

A European Research project conducted through Maynooth University involving 8 other countries is looking at how families and households are coping after the financial crisis.

RESCuE is trying to understand how families who have been adversely affected by the economic crisis “bounce back”? We are interested in how families have adapted to face recent challenges to help them get by and challenges they may be struggling with.

Maynooth University is part of a nine-country European consortium that is investigating resilience among families and households in urban and rural areas across Europe. We are listening to the voices of ordinary people coping with the economic crisis. The project aims to assist social institutions and policy makers to learn from those experiences and to develop better strategies for supporting families and households in the future.

www.rescueproject.eu

For more details, please see the Brief overview of the RESCuE project and a RESCuE project poster with contact details

RESCuE

If you are interested in participating, please contact:

Dr. Jennifer Dagg
RESCuE: Citizens’ Resilience in times of crisis
NIRSA, Ionta Building, North Campus

jennifer.dagg [AT] nuim.ie

Note: replace [AT] with ‘@’

Residents Association – 2014 Accounts Available

Ashefield Residents Association financial accounts for 2014 are now available for download.

These documents lists the 2014 account summary, all the bank lodgements and withdrawals for the year, and a breakdown of the collections per house

Many thanks to everyone who have donated and helped with association activities during the year. We rely on your donations to maintain the common areas of the estate and for upkeep when needed for the common good. For 2015, we hope that you will continue to offer your much-needed support. If you would like to contribute towards the upkeep of the estate common areas or have not yet been able to do so, we can accept payments by Paypal. The link is on the right hand side bar of the website.

Roadsweeper in Ashefield

Folks,

Westmeath Co. Co. sent their roadsweeper into the estate today and cleaned the road edges. This was most welcome because there was a significant increase in debris over the past couple of months. Many thanks to the residents who raised this issue and to Cllr. Ken Glynn for working with Westmeath Co. Co. on our behalf to ensure it paid us a visit.

C-Link road green area update

Many thanks to Cllr. Ken Glynn and Westmeath Co. Co. who, with Ashefield Residents Association, recently re-visited the overgrown green area adjacent to the C-link road/Western ByPass and came up with a plan of action. You may already have noticed a dramatic improvement: Westmeath Co. Co. have followed up and cut the overgrown area down to a more manageable state. As you can see from the photos, it is a large area and it will require regular cutting and additional financial support in order to prevent it from lapsing into an overgrown state again in the future.

We would like to hear from you about your thoughts for a long term management plan for this area – especially from residents in the immediate area who expressed their concerns during the recent collection activities. Please feel free to comment below or contact the residents association by email [ info AT ashefield.com ].

After
A view of the green area adjacent to C-Link road/Western bypass AFTER the works
A view of the overgrown green area adjacent to C-Link road/Western bypass
A view of the overgrown green area adjacent to C-Link road/Western bypass BEFORE the works