Why form a Residents Association.

Some points to consider related to the benefits of re-establishing a residents association for our area. Circa 600 house holds

• Ensure the overall area contiues to be a desirable place to live and the overall residents of the existing housing stock are provided with the relevant information to increase or maintain the value of there properties that can compete with newer housing stock that may be of similar size but are cheaper to run and finance but may be in a less desirable location within the Dublin area

• Get to know your neighbours and build a better community within our area, and if you have an older neighbours I believe you should take some time to think about the information outlined in the following document https://www.caremark.ie/news/how-you-can-support-elderly-neighbours/

• Develop community initiatives that could be beneficial to all the residents in our area. e.g home energy upgrade solution, public EV charging points, Green space play areas, water conservation measures and harvesting measure etc 

• Gain access to grant funding from various govermental related bodies. From my research there are over 40 different types of grants that could be applied for, from the likes of DLRCC, SEAI, other goverment agencies and even EU related agencies

• DLRCC grant funding allocation for communities which in 2025 is €15M. Overall DLRCC budget for 2025 €282M.

• Will our area recevie any funding for communitees from DLRCC in 2025 or has our area recieved any community related funding from DLRCC in the last 5 years. 

• Many other areas with residents associations have obtained grant funding from DLRCC for various initiaties e.g  community energy plans, play areas for children, community gardens etc.

• Could a residents association for approx 600 householders within our area help to navigate some of these challenges in the future and achieve some of the related enhancements made to other areas already implemented within DLRCC.

• Beech Park / South Park is one of the only large housing areas within DLRCC that is not supported by a residents association.

• Due to housing stock age in the estate, many of the houses built built in the 1960's and the associated running costs for some of these houses would be amongst the highest running costs in the Foxrock-beechpark area.

• The implementation of a shared community tool scheme managed by a residents association. e.g A scenario similar to the Woodies DIY advertisment "Larry" where there are a number of residents in an area calling for Larry and as the advertismant proceeds it turns out that "Larry" is a ladder that can be borrowed by residents from one particular resident in the area that is willing to lend their ladder to other residents within the area.

• There are many other things a residents association could do for our area and the community as many other residents associations are already doing within the DLRCC area. However,  the residents in the estate would need to agree that some level of participation by residents in a residents association could prove to be benefical to them, their neighbours and the overall community within the area and that a residents association could have a meaningfull impact within the area over time.

Connecting and working with existing community initiatives, associations within our area

• There are 71 other reistered entities within our defined electoral area registered in the DLRPPN

https://www.dlrppn.ie/ppn-members/

Thus you would assume some of these entities have already achieved  some of the aims a residents association would like to achieve for our area ? 

Why do residents associations fail

• Lack of engagement and participation within the area and community 

• Not representing the overall community within the area and community 

• Not really achieving any results that benefit the overall area and community 

• Becoming a "talking shop" etc etc 

Note: It is the collective effort of the people within that community that can turn an idea and vision into a set of actions that can be implemented and achieved and thus achieve poitive results for the whole community.

Note: It is important to highlight that any opinions I have conveyed within the information contained within this initial draft website are my personal opinions only and the opinions and "voice" of the overall community contained within the proposed Beech Park Residents Association going forward should allways convey the overall opinion and "voice" of the community of the area the Beech Park residents association would propose to represent.