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A proposal asking Louth County Council to establish a new Cross Border Greenway Ranger was discussed at Tuesday's 5 April meeting of the Municipal District of Dundalk.
The proposal brought forward by Councillor Antóin Watters had called for Louth CC to establish the Ranger post in conjunction with Newry, Mourne and Down District Council with the aim of overseeing the upkeep and maintenance of the very popular Newry/ Omeath/ Carlingford Greenway.
Ultimately the Council didn't support the motion. Speaking of his disappointment Cllr Watters said "Unfortunately the Council did not support my motion and I was very disappointed with the one line response. The whole idea behind it relates to the upkeep of the Greenway and the cross border dynamic."
The response to the Motion from the Director of Corporate and Emergency Services said "The Council have no plans to put such a measure in place."
Shared Island Fund
Cllr Watters is not giving up and has asked the council to seek funding from the Shared Island Unit to look at a pilot scheme for the initiative.
A €5M Shared Island Local Authority Development Funding Call was announced 5 April and will enable Local Authorities to partner on a cross-border basis to bring new projects through feasibility or pre-planning stages, with a maximum amount of €250,000 per project awarded.
Areas which may be considered for development funding include, but are not limited to:
- tourism and recreation on a cross-border basis- walking routes, mountain bike trails; active travel opportunities; food trails
- collaborative education, training or skills provision to meet regional needs
- enterprise development, including to support cross-border clusters, networks, innovation, hubs, bioeconomy, agri-food, FDI
- conservation of biodiversity; including border region peatland protection
- improving/developing natural or built heritage
- cultural curation projects which recognise and celebrate diverse community and cultural traditions
