Since it started 14 years ago, the Community Grant Scheme run by waste to energy operator Indaver at their plant at Carranstown, Duleek has donated almost €3million to local charities, sports clubs and other organisations.
However, the vast bulk of this money went to organisations in County Meath and little, if any, of the money reached clubs or community organisations in Drogheda.
The Irish Cement factory at Platin, situated next door to Indaver, are starting their own community fund this year and Independent Councillor Paddy Mc Quillan says that a repeat of the Indaver scenario must not be allowed to happen.
He pointed out that the criteria for applying for funds from Platin’s new scheme is that the groups or organisations must be from Platin’s catchment area.
“The ‘catchment area’ criteria that was applied to the Indaver fund prevented groups and organisations in Drogheda from applying for funding as we were deemed not to be in the catchment area of the Incinerator Plant” he explained. “There is absolutely no denying that Drogheda is in the catchment area of Platin”, Mc Quillan said. “It’s official address is Platin, Drogheda, Co. Louth.
“A number of issues must be taken into consideration when drawing up the terms and references for the catchment area.
He said that over many years Drogheda has suffered due to cement trucks rolling through the town to reach Tom Roe’s point.
“It takes 160 truckloads to fill the average cement ship” Mc Quillan said. “Our town experiences noise and air pollution while these trucks operate. There is no escaping the dust from the plant as residents in Drogheda have been wiping the dust off our cars and windows for decades.
“When this fund is at full capacity there will be over 300K each year for groups to apply for. It has been remarked to myself from Platin staff that Duleek is experiencing ‘fund saturation’ from the concentration of the Indaver Community Fund.
“The Drogheda community groups and services who could dearly benefit from this fund are, and have been supporting the people of East Meath for years through their activities”.
After much correspondence and meetings with senior management at Platin, Councillor Mc Quillan says he is fighting to enable all Drogheda services, charities, community and sporting organisations access to this funding stream that is coming online soon.
