Woodford Parish Development Group welcome you to our new brand launch and the first of a series of actions in our combat climate change endeavours. You will have joined us on social media over the past few days and we take this opportunity to thank you for your support.

Woodford Parish Development Group are currently working on a sustainability plan for our community that reflects our commitment to environmental, economic and social excellence. Our plan will help guide Woodford Parish towards being the leader in Sustainable Development, environmental protection and preservation in Galway.

Each of the actions in the plan will ultimately have a lasting impact on the community we have guardianship of today, on behalf of our children and their children. The plan fosters respect for each other and the natural environment that will make Woodford a wonderful home for many generations to come. We have already started the consultation process with the students at Woodford Mercy College, the leaders of the future.We will extend this consultation to the wider community; private business and public partnerships over the coming months to finalize our plan in December 2019.

Sustainability was already part of our ethos and for the past few months we have been preparing the first in what we hope is a series of positive climate change actions.

Today we launch our reusable coffee cup made from recycled plastic and our reusable cotton tote bag.

We also launch a name change on our Facebook Page. The Tidy Towns project for 2019 has now finished and for everyone who participated in the initiative we congratulate you all. There will be a meeting later this month to present the adjudicators report and to outline all new ideas and improvements for 2020. Tidy Towns is only one part of what we do so today’s name change represents that there is a bigger project taking place here in Woodford, Co Galway.

Woodford has a history of caring for our environment, where we respect and understand our role in strong community connections to nature. Our parents taught us that we do not just inhabit our environment, we are a vital component that interacts with other components to create our environment. In how we work the land, conserve our water ways, maintain our culture and heritage. It is up to us to carry this knowledge forward and adapt it for the world we now live in. “Mighty oaks from little acorns grow” . In the shadow of our might oak forests, let small individual actions shared across our wider community become big actions.

We hope you’ll join us in making a sustainable plan for Woodford a reality. We encourage everyone to take positive action and appreciate how even the smallest activity, when shared by many, can have a global impact on our community, our country and our planet.

Go raibh míle maith agaibh