Clones

In 2017, the Ballybay Clones Municipal District invited key community, voluntary, private sector and statutory organisations with a vested interest in Clones Town to nominate members to sit on a new structure which was being developed for Clones – the Clones Town Team.

The remit of the Town Team was to engage in an appraisal and planning process, resulting in the development of a plan for the town which highlighted key themes or areas of interest and associated activities which when delivered on would bring benefit and value to the residents of the town as well as its economic and social wellbeing and revitalisation.

The first meeting of the town team took place on October 3 rd , 2017 with 16 members in attendance. Since then a number of additional team members have been added to the team and they have been working on developing this action plan. Appendix 1 contains a list of Clones Town Team Members.

Developing the action plan has meant that all key stakeholders in the town have committed to a focused course of action over the next three years and will allow a prompt response to any relevant funding applications which fit with the identified priorities contained within the plan.

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The Clones Town Team wish to work together in partnership with the people of the town to build on concept of:

Clones – a great place to live, work and visit.

Where the town is a revitalised vibrant sustainable community:

• A town which meets the needs of everyone who lives there;
• A town where people feel safe, healthy, happy and included;
• A town where the physical environment is looked after with pride, appreciated and enhanced;
• A town which people love to visit to appreciate its character, heritage, people and cultural tradition;
• A town which is growing in connection, cooperation and community values;
• A town which offers range of appealing social and retail solutions;
• A town which supports the development of good social and economic wellbeing

In order to work together towards this vision, the team have identified the following priority areas to work in. In each priority are the team have selected a number of actions which will require focused attention in order to being about improvements or to fill gaps in the town features of services, which will benefit both the residents of the town and visitors to the town alike.

Community building and strengthening

The Town Team recognises that the town has experienced considerable change over the past thirty years. Societal changes have impacted on how the members of a community engage with each other within the town, the numbers lining in the town centre have decreased while single rural dwellings have increased in the environs of the town and there has been a marked increase in the number of new communities coming to live in the town.

It has identified a number of actions which are required to promote a stronger sense of community integration and cohesion, which builds on the old idea of neighbourliness. It is also important to continually develop mechanisms for communicating with the town and community residents, reinforcing what is in the town and raising awareness of services which might not be known about by everyone. Clones Notice Boards has been a fantastic addition to the community communication and has been particularly effective in times of concern or crisis (threat of burglaries, during periods of bad weather). It has also created a forum for people to engage from near and far with the Clones community through nostalgic remembrances stimulated by the old photo collections which are steadily added by Rory McMahon.

Who is the Clones Town Team?