Action plan: 2023
Our action plan for 2023 lists the work we’ll do under the 8 themes identified in 2012 as most important to our community.
See what we’re doing where you live:
1. Culture and heritage
- Paint a mural of Waterfall Railway Station at the service entrance to Earl’s Well
- Work with interested parties and carry out research on subjects of local historic interest. Publish findings to ballinora.com.
Subjects of local historic interest include:
- Ballymacadane Abbey
- Inniskenny Church Yard
- Corbally Graveyard
- Ballinora National School
- Research the Donovan family headstone in Corbally Graveyard
- Investigate the possibility of using Ground Penetrating Radar (GRP) for archaeological investigations in Corbally Graveyard.
- Put up an information board on West Cork Railway near the railway station sign
- Put up a replica of an old-style phone box
2. Social Inclusion
- Promote social opportunities for older people. For example, a drama group, book club, scrabble club, historical society
3. Environment
- Through the ‘Better Energy Communities Programme 2020’, facilitate a community-wide deep retrofit energy improvement in buildings
- Record locations and occupancy of installed bird and bat boxes
- Research appropriate native shrubs and flowers and carry out pollinator-friendly and companion planting
- Compile a list of flora and fauna common to Ballinora and Waterfall
- Identify locations of invasive species and load to a digital map
- Make plans – with the help of appropriate expertise – for the control and eradication of invasive species
- Repair gaps in hedgerows with native shrub species – in consultation with landowners
- Investigate whether the site at the Viaduct end of Castlewhite road can be used for a woodland plantation
- Complete Habitat Map (Fossitt level 3) for Ballinora and Waterfall
- Complete Digital maps of the area
- Regularly upload locations of local interest to the digitised map
- Complete phase 3 of Bat Survey to a professional standard
- Submit BAP data to National Biodiversity Data Centre
- Carry out a quality evaluation of the Curraheen river from Greybrook to Curraheen
Waterfall
- Fit solar lighting to Waterfall Railway Bridge, plant 4 sides of the Bridge – some work already done by TidyTowns
- Pour footpath from Heatherfield to Ballymah pitch and down to Marymount
- Work on connecting Waterfall and Ballinora villages with a walkway
- Put up welcome signs on both sides of Waterfall village
Ballinora
- Put up a display board at Goblin Corner showing a natural bird sanctuary in this area
- Repair the stone fence across from the church
- Explore introducing a book swap facility in the Ballinora
- Pour footpath on the right-hand side of the road after the bend under the trees, along the right-hand side of the Village as far as the church entrance
- Put up chevron arrow sign at the start of the stone fence opposite the church entrance
- Install kerbs at the base of the stone fence opposite the school as far as the entrance to Woodside
- Pour concrete surface drain from GAA entrance to the Ballinora Stone sign
- Tar and chip both sides of the road edge at Hall Hill Bridge
- Paint yellow lines on both sides of the road through the village between the ‘Welcome’ signs
- Touch up the mural and put a sill along the top of the wall to protect the mural
Jimmy’s Cross
- Install public lighting and erect a dry stone wall at the corner near Dineen’s house at Jimmy’s Cross
Ballinora Cross
- Install public lighting
4. Safety & Security
- Continue participation in the community alert programme
5. Roads and Road Safety
- Remove 2 trees at the west side of Old Abbey Railway Bridge
- Build a pathway from Ballinora Village to Waterfall Village and on to Ballymah GAA pitch
- Place convex mirrors at dangerous bends
- Fill in roadside drains on narrow roads around the parish
- Put up a direction sign for Castlewhite at the southern end of that road
- Work with Cork County Council on road speeds in the area
- Follow up on developments on the idea of a footpath linking Waterfall with Ballinora Village.
- Install a pedestrian crossing at Ballymah Pitch entrance
- Complete list of jobs supplied to Cork County Council – Carrigaline
- Attach ‘road not suitable for HGVs’ signs on narrow roads in the area
6. Communications
- Conduct a parish-wide survey
- Put up a billboard in Ballinora and Waterfall for use by organisations promoting events
7. Recreation
- Develop Sli na Slainte walk in the parish – km marking, steps taken, Kcal burned
8. Infrastructure
- Work with the GAA on the refurbishment of the meeting rooms in the hall