This year we have had….

102 Followers on our new Instagram account!

17 Local Campaigns on natural and built heritage in Lecale!

12 Meetings of our committee planning the year ahead!

4 Youth Leaders hosting our Annual Summer Camp!

3 Media Appearances!

2 Youth Leaders trained as website developers!

1 Pub Quiz!

Happy New Year from Lecale Conservation!!

Climate in Councils Training Course

Lecale Conservation buy all our plants for sand-dune restoration projects from True Harvest Seeds . See this video of them in action,

Incoming Lecale Conservation Chair John Peacocke said “We were delighted to get 2 years of funding for
our Lecale Youth Group to train them on website creation, maintenance and social media campaigning.

I would like to thank our youth officer Cadogan Enright for leading this work in Downpatrick Library on
numerous Saturday mornings over the last 2 years.”

“Lecale youth have done an excellent job in vividly depicting environmental activism in South East Down
over 30 years and highlighting the work of well-known activists past and present, creating a record of how
ordinary people have fought for, and succeeded in getting environmental action in and around Lecale”.

“I would encourage people of any age to look at www.lecaleconservation.org and see how they might help
in the many different types of work from restoring wildlife areas with fencing and planting, campaigning to
change regulation or the law, doing funding applications or helping our youth group travel to Climate
Change demos in Belfast or further afield. We have cross-membership with the Loch Cuan Canoe Club which has enabled members to participate in water-borne environmental action like cleaning the Quoile river
every spring or litter-picking 108 islands on Strangford Lough in late summer.”

Recent projects by Lecale Conservation include working with the Strangford and Lecale Coast Partnership
to restore 1.5 kilometres of dunes at Tyrella beach, copying previous work at Ballyhornan Beach. Or raising
funds for and carrying out work to create community parks and facilities in Ardglass, Kilclief and Killard.

Lecale secretary David Beckett ; “I would invite families or groups interested in supporting environmental
action to organise a team for our quiz-night at the Lake-side Inn beside Ballydugan Lake on Saturday 23 rd
March at 8pm. Quiz teams are maximum 6 per table and you can book at place with Margaret at
07789208859. Anyone interested in joining our group and coming along to our monthly meetings at the
nearby Mill in Ballydugan can contact me by email at lecaleconservation@gmail.com .”

The episode will be aired in the coming weeks, and you can find online now, here.

At our meeting with the Council’s senior management team today (30/11/2013) as the United Nations delegates assembled in Dubai, South Down Alliance Party Councillors made it clear that for the last 2 years we have reluctantly supported annual rates proposals on the expectation that the savings, increased revenues and a broader rates base to the benefit of exiting ratepayers would be forthcoming from Council Management. This year we made it clear that we wanted concrete targets that we could measure as KPI’s (Key performance Indicators)

Each day during COP28 I will make a post giving real examples of what the South Down Alliance Party have been doing since 2019 in real concrete terms to have Newry Mourne and Down Council do what it needs to to to tackle Climate Change.

As you will see, all our ideas are drawn from what other Councils across Ireland and GB are already doing. None of these ideas are are hard to understand or implement. All of these proposals financially benefit the ratepayer to a very significant degree, it just needs action instead of words. Many of the motions we have passed in Council were supported by other parties, often unanimously. Many of these ideas have yet to result in anything but what one of my colleagues has described as a ‘Green Salad of Words’.

I will store all my posts on my website for easy reference and to help Councillors in other Councils take action too

The first hours of the flood in Downpatrick

DOWNPATRICK TOWN CENTRE DESTROYED BY FLOODS

On the Saturday morning of the worst flooding ever seen in Downpatrick, I had risen early to lead the Climate Change Youth Group in a 3-hour workshop in Downpatrick Library.  In the midst of the workshop, I got a call from Alliance MLA Patrick Brown to let me know Downpatrick was flooding and he met me outside the Library and I was shocked to see what was going on with no warnings to any of the businesses that one might expect.  The Climate Change workshop was abandoned and we spent they next days and weeks working to help the business people and traders in the town.

Opening ceremony for COP28 in United Arab Emirates today

Keeping you up to date on all our work, especially the work of the youth group, you can check out our Instagram at @lecaleconservation

You can also follow our Facebook here!

Taking place in the Mill at Ballydugan, 8pm, the meeting will allow members to discuss our ongoing efforts across the Lecale district, such as work at Killough Strand, local beach dune restoration works, beach cleans, and many other issues.

A short presentation will be made to the Members at the meeting from Lecale Conservation Youth Group, who will be informing the association about the creation of the lecaleconservation.org website, as well as their upcoming visit to the Blue Earth Summit in Bristol, next week.

An agenda is available on request to our Secretary.

The association wish to thank Noel Killen for his ongoing support and provision of a meeting space in the Mill at Ballydugan.

With hundreds of other campaigners and activists, our youth leaders travelled to Belfast to demand an end to the advancement and continued use of fossil fuels, despite the many many alternatives, as highlighted in the Youth Energy Campaign.

Check out more here.