Minutes of the Climate Action, Biodiversity, Environment SPC Meeting held on Tuesday 16^th of September 2025 which had been circulated were CONSIDERED. 

It was then PROPOSED by Councillor D. Healy, seconded by Councillor J. Newman and RESOLVED – 

“That the minutes of the Climate Action, Biodiversity, Environment SPC Meeting held on Tuesday 16^th of September 2025 be ADOPTED.”

Catherine McQuaid from Grant Thornton, gave a presentation on Future Fingal: Sustainable Fingal Strategy which gave an update on the key findings from the workshops conducted to date and outlined the next steps of the strategy.

Feedback from Members to the Consultants was noted for consideration.

The presentation was NOTED.

Hans Visser gave a presentation on the Land Acquisition Actions which was followed by questions/answers from the Members.

The presentation was NOTED.

An update was given to the members on the following 2025 Programmes:

·       RMCEI Plan

·       Climate Action Plan  - Implementation Plan

·       Water Framework Directive River Basin Management Plan – Implementation in Fingal

·       Biodiversity Implementation Plan

·       Litter Management Plan

·       National Waste Management Plan for Circular Economy

o   Fingal Reusable Cup Project

o   Malahide Concerts 2025

o   District Heating

·       Bathing Water Quality Report 2025

The update was Noted

The motion in the name of Councillor D. Healy, was proposed by Councillor D. Healy and seconded by Councillor J. Newman

Motion: Councillor D. Healy

“That the Chief Executive report on the progress of implementing sustainable water management and biodiversity enhancement measures in the Council’s own developments”.

Report:

Surface Water and Flood management on all developments must comply with the Sustainable Drainage & Flood Management objectives in the Fingal Development Plan 2023-2029 and the Strategic Flood Risk Assessment for the Development Plan as well as the requirements of the Fingal Green Blue Infrastructure Guidance and the Fingal Green & Blue Roof Guidance.

FCC have a number of developments in progress that take into account Sustainable Drainage & Flood Management objectives in the Fingal Development Plan 2023-2029 and the Fingal Biodiversity Action Plan along with assessing projects under the relevant indicators in the selected Building Environmental Assessment Methods of the Irish Green Building Councils Home Performance Index or BREEAM as appropriate. The indicators sit under Land Use and Ecology which support biodiversity policies.

Green roofs are being provided on a number of apartment buildings including Church Fields, Ballymastone, Mooretown and Seatown Road with green roof currently proposed for Woodside. The urban infill development at 30-32 North Street is to incorporate a green roof over the bike store, rainwater butts, permeable paving in the courtyard space and beneath the car parking and tree pits.

A number of Public Buildings recently constructed or in progress incorporate green roofs including Meakstown Community Centre, Baldoyle Racecourse Community Centre, Skerries Library and Swords Cultural Quarter. These also include tree pits, permeable paving and planting. The Meakstown Community Centre also features a rain garden swale and the Baldoyle Community Centre parking spaces have been constructed in permeable grasscrete.

All the above projects use native planning in the landscaping proposals. The schemes incorporate nest boxes for swifts, swallows and/or house martins as appropriate. Lighting proposals are bat sensitive and incorporate bat boxes where relevant.

The Building Environmental Assessment Methods adopted include biodiversity assessment in terms of impact, net gain and/or ecology green points as appropriate.

Source of report:  Daire Bracken, Senior Executive Architect/Colin Gallagher, Senior Engineer, Planning Strategic & Infrastructure

The report was Accepted