Held in St. Brigid’s Parish Hall, Cabinteely.

Attendance: Tom Robinson (Chairman); Will Fitzpatrick (Environment); Catherine Bourke (Secretary); Maria Boylan (Treasurer); Margaret Nevin; Nancy Robinson; Kathryn O’Brien; Gayatri Rajmohan; Satheesh; Brian McDaid; Xinjuan Zhou; Junzhe Hou and Andre Darjan.

The Chairman, Tom Robinson, welcomed everyone on behalf of the committee.

The Secretary, Catherine Bourke, read the minutes of the 2023 AGM – and these were approved.

Chairman’s Report:

1. Environment and Biodiversity

The Association takes an interest in the common area owned by the County Council which stretches from the Old Bray Road down to the stream. Clean-up days had been held on the First Saturday of every month throughout the year (when weather permitted) involving litter clearance, weeding, planting and leaf blowing in order to keep the avenue and environs looking not only well but impressive.

Having won two awards in 2022 in the Dun Laoghaire CC Tidy Districts Competition, Brennanstown did not feature at all in the 2023 judging. We got a score of 73%. The various winners in 2023 all had major projects going on which we had done in 2022.

              The judges were critical of poor maintenance of some sleepers bordering the square (their comments were passed on to ODREM). They also gave a poor mark (6 out of a possible 15) for ‘Community Engagement’ as typically we have only 5 or 6 people engaged on the Saturday morning clean-ups our of 229 units. 

The Chairman appealed for greater participation of residents in the one-hour Clean-up days in 2024. Residents will be reminded by way of a poster board and on the Brennanstown Square WhatsApp group.

• Planning
• We attended a pre-design consultation meeting Cherrywood to Cornelscourt Greenway held by DLRcc. We expressed the majority desire that the greenway would be built on the ‘Old Bray Road’ side of the stream. No decisions were made as this was purely a consultation.
• These works include the construction of a new 3 span bridge crossing the Cabinteely stream as well as approximately 360m of new road as the extension of Druid’s Glen Road.  The works will also include new access points from the new road to service future development lands. The key objective is vehicular and pedestrian access to Cherrywood SDZ.
• Three developments, where planning permission has been approved, are still outstanding with no movement during 2023.  A 342-unit development abutting Cherrywood side, a 234-unit development abutting Cabinteely side and a 72-unit development facing Brennanstown on the ‘Old Bray Road’ side of the stream.

So, over the next several years we will find at least 3 other complexes being built around our complex.

• Social
• BBQ: The annual BBQ was held in the Square on Saturday 17^th June 2023. We had 76 participants. The day was shrouded in mist but was enjoyed, nonetheless. From an oversight point of view the turnout was poor (32 adult residents our of 229 units = 14% – the rest were children and visitors.) The food was too expensive, even when subsidised by the Association, and we made a financial loss.  An alternative to a BBQ such as a ‘Street Feast’ or a ‘Square Fest’ or other ‘Summer Event’ will be held. Details will be worked out during the year.  
• Coffee Mornings:

This was a new initiative in 2023. They are held on the 3^rd Saturday of every month from 11 am to 12.30 pm since October 2023. It’s a ‘bring your own coffee’ affair and the Association provides some pastries. They take place in the Square but if the weather is inclement they can be held in a volunteering resident’s apartment instead. Attendance is low (10 to 12 residents) at present but we hope these coffee mornings will catch on and help residents to get to know one another more.

• Website

The website continues to be a useful source of information for announcing activities as well as providing tradesmen’s details, planning notices, membership renewal details, a link to join the WhatsApp group etc.

• WhatsApp Group

Thanks to Mark Langton who set this up for us. The Chairman now manages it. There are over 80 residents in the groups at present and the Chairman encouraged more to join through the website. It’s proving to be useful for communication and help between neighbours, notifying of lights left on in cars, parking infringements, boiler and humidifier advice, furniture exchange and so on. 

Treasurers Report

DLRcc offers to help groups such as our Association with expenses – by way of giving a grant of 70% of those expenses. With the aid of this grant of €527 from DLRcc in 2023, we had a surplus of €84.01 for the year.

Members subscriptions were down from 89 in 2022 to 64 in 2023. This represents a poor participation rate of just 28% for the complex.

Our income consisted of €1600 from subscriptions, a grant of €527 and BBQ income of €1032.50 making a total of €3159.50.

Our main expenditure was made up of BBQ outlay on subsidies, caterers, printing, posters, balloons and small toys and drinks. Other expenses were for insurance, web site annual maintenance, plants, bank fees and general printing costs for letters and posters.

 Our closing balance at 31/1/2024 will be a healthy €2024.08.

Our draft Budget for the year commencing 1/2/2024 envisages:

1. Our Membership Fee remaining unchanged at €25.
2. The elimination of the high cost for a BBQ at its replacement with a lower costing event.
3. The receipt of a potential Community Development Grant from DLRcc of €788 being 70% of €1125. We have already provided estimates of these expenses to DLRcc but the grant will only be payable when actual receipts are submitted before 31 July 2024.
4. Our expenditure equaling our income leaving the same closing balance at 31/1/205 as we had at 31/1/2024 of €2024.08.

Acceptance of the Treasurer’s Report and Budget was proposed and seconded – and adopted.    

Changes to the constitution

The committee proposed changes to the constitution as follows:

1. to allow for the possibility of four to seven committee members (as distinct from the existing five to eight) and
2. to allow the committee meetings to be run on dates and times to be agreed by the committee from time to time (as distinct from the current ‘first Tuesday of the month at 7.30pm)

Adoption of these changes was proposed and seconded – and adopted.

Election/Re-election of committee members.                                                                              

The existing four committee members, all of whom continue to be eligible, offered to continue to serve.

On the invitation of the Chairman, two residents put their names forward to be member of the committee:

a) Satheesh; and b) Margaret Nevin.

Their election was proposed and seconded – and they were deemed elected.

Other matters:

A discussion on how to increase membership followed. Suggestions included:

1. that we include an envelope which had the committee members’ addresses on them with the 2024 subscription letters to facilitate the payment of the subscription by cash or cheque.
2. Contacting other resident associations to see what they did to increase their membership.
3. That an outline of some of the Resident Association’s activities be included in the Subscription Letter.

Close

The Chairman thanked everyone for their attendance and closed the meeting.

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