Paul Murphy
Meath County Council has promised to “comprehensively engage” with local councillors and communities over plans to examine possible forest projects in the Lobinstown area following protests over the issue by a Fine Gael councillor. Cllr Paddy Meade called on the council to immediately pause and suspend the proposed forestry schemes at Polecastle, Lobinstown and Footstown pending full consultation with local elected members the residents of Lobinstown Parish and a detailed assessment of the community, housing and agricultural needs of the area.
News that the council was examining the possibility of creating woodland sites at the three locations emerged during a visit to the county last month by Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food (DFMA) and the Marine Michael Healy Rae. During the visit the council highlighted its progress in priority areas such as biodiversity and heritage, climate action, community development, and environmental protection as well as its collaborations with the Centre of Food Culture and Boyne Valley Flavours.
When the news first emerged Cllr Meade called for a halt to the project saying that housing, sports and farming need should come first.
The councillor said “It’s very simple. I am looking for consultation with the councillors and the public. Some of the lands re located in and around Lobinstown, some of it in the village that could be used for housing, high quality land, some of it could be used for sports areas and such. For the last 100 years these were cow plots, some pieces of land used by landowners to put cows or sheep on them.
In recent years it was taken over by the council and leased out to small landowners, one of which was a riding school and very dependent on it”. The councillor drew laughter when he said that Lobinstown was the economic and environmental capital of Co Meath. He pleaded with the council not to plant trees on good land. Instead, the council should sell that land and buy “cheap” land down the road in “boggy” areas and plant trees there.
Officials said that the council had agreed to work with the Forestry Division to undertake initial assessments of the Polecastle, Lobinstown and Footstown areas to determine whether woodland creation might be feasible. It said that at this early stage no firm commitments had been made to establish forestry in the named areas or any other cites in the county. “However, we will continue to engage to DAFM officials to assess the suitability of local authority-owned lands for woodland creation and/or agroforestry demonstration. Elected members and and residents will be engaged comprehensively as part of any future suitability assessments under the National Forestry Programme 2023-2027. Any evaluation will incorporate community, housing and agricultural considerations”.
