Keville & O'Sullivan Associates work on Burren Project

The Burren Connect Project, led by Clare County Council in partnership with Fáilte Ireland, Shannon Development, National Parks and Wildlife Service and Burren Beo, aims to develop sustainable approaches to visitor management in the Burren.  Burren Connect has a significant traffic management component, which aims to "encourage the flow of traffic onto more robust routes, develop self-regulated one way driving routes for coach tours, reduce traffic congestion at key areas and provide safe off-road viewing points at popular beauty spots".  As part of the project, a traffic management strategy for the R447/R479 Coast Road between Ballyvaghan and Doolin is currently being prepared.  The road, which measures 25 kilometres in length, passes through coastal scenery of high quality and is used regularly by sightseers, cyclists, walkers, anglers, climbers and divers.

Keville & O'Sullivan Associates, in conjunction with A.P. McCarthy Planning Consultants, Colin Buchanan Partners and Brendan McGrath & Associates, has been involved in the preparation of the traffic management strategy for the R447/R479 Coast Road.  The work carried out by KOSA Ltd. includes a comprehensive assessment of the environmental context of the route, in particular the ecology and landscape of the area, and the making of recommendations arising from this assessment.  KOSA Ltd. has also been responsible for the environmental assessment of the recommended traffic management strategy. 

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Golden Mile Competition

The Golden Mile Competition

Congratulations to Liscul Golden Mile Group who won several awards in Roscommon's Golden Mile Competition 2007!

Our Assistant Ecologist, Helen Carty is one of the founding members of the Lisacul Golden Mile Group. The group were awarded first prize the 'Best Hedgerow' and 'Best Community Effort' categories. Certificates of Merit and two prize cheques, €300 each, were awarded to the group at an Awards Ceremony in Tulsk last week.

The Golden Mile Competition is an environmental initiaitve ran by County Councils all over Ireland. The Golden Mile first began in Tipperary as a Millenium Project in 2000. Roscommon was soon to follow suit and now the competition is run in County Galway too among many others. The competition aims to promote awareness of hedgerows, their importance as boundaries and as a natural feature. It serves to encourage people living on rural roads - especially tertiary roads - to become more aware of the natural and built heritage along their roadsides and where necessary, to take appropriate action to preserve and maintain this resource. For example, this may involve clipping back a hedgerow on a dangerous bend; repairing traditional gates and stone walls; or picking up litter. Miles are assessed on hedgerow interest, quality and mix of vegetation, flora and manmade features.

Lisacul Golden Mile Group chose an old right-of-way in the village of Lisacul. The route, called 'Bóthar na Marbh', used to serve the old cemetry in the 12th Century monastic settlement which is located along the mile. The group have been working on this mile for 3 years now and each year their efforts are awarded with a prize in one category or another!

For more information see Roscommon Golden Mile Competition.

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Bon Voyage

Bon Voyage and the best of luck to Project Ecologist Dervla O'Dowd, who is taking a three month career break to go travelling and to expand her ecological skills abroad. Dervla has been working with us for over two years and will be missed! The Best of Luck from all of us at KOSA.

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Operation Christmas Child - Well Done Jen

Well Done to ecologist Jen Fisher for all her hard work in organising Operation Christmas Child within the Galway Technology Centre. Keville & O'Sullivan were proud and delighted to have sent 55 shoeboxes filled with lovely childrens gifts to some of the worlds poorest children.

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Underwater power plan for coast

Eon UK and Lunar Energy have submitted their proposal for the project near St Davids to the UK government. The companies say generators powered by the rise and fall of the tide could produce electricity for 5,000 homes. Friends of the Earth Cymru said it was in favour of the plant "in principle" so long as it did not have an adverse impact on the marine environment.

The two companies said they had completed a feasibility study and have submitted a "scoping report" outlining their intentions to the Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. They are now required to produce detailed environmental impact assessments to accompany a future planning application. If approved, the companies say the plant could be operational within three to four years.

Amaan Lafayette of Eon UK said: "The waters off the coast of Wales have some of the greatest potential for marine-generated energy in Europe. "This project will help us to harness the power of the tides and turn that potential into the clean, renewable energy we need to help fight the effects of climate change. "If it gets the go-ahead, this scheme will be one of the largest tidal stream projects of its kind in the world." Gordon James, director of Friends of the Earth Cymru, said: "We have to tap into marine sources to generate energy that does not emit large amounts of CO2. "Of course they will have to ensure that the environmental safeguards are met. "In principle I hope that it does over come any potential obstacles." He said "the crisis of climate change" meant many more wind and wave power plants were need to replace fossil fuels "and as quickly as possible."

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Ireland's Nitrates Directive gets the green light

Irish ministers have welcomed the European Union's decision to close infringement proceedings in relation to Ireland's implementation of the Nitrates Directive.

Nitrate pollution is a serious problem in rural areas

Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, John Gormley, said that the move would allow Irish agricultural businesses and Government bodies to concentrate on cutting down on pollution to the country's waterways and groundwaters.

The Nitrates Action Programme is intended to protect waters from pollution from agricultural businesses and the regulations help establish binding rules of good agricultural practice to avoid water pollution. These put an emphasis on businesses to correctly manage livestock manure and other fertilisers.

Mr Gormley said: "Most water pollution is needless and avoidable. The Nitrates Regulations can play a major part in reducing the extent of water pollution from agricultural sources.

"I expect that there will be a high level of compliance by farmers generally and that significant improvements in water quality can be achieved.

"However, in the interests of protecting water quality and in fairness to the responsible farmers who comply with good practice, I am determined that any rogue offenders have the full rigours of the law applied to them."

The minister added that he would like to see more inspections to make sure agricultural businesses complied with the rules.

Recently, it was announced that that the Government would set up a new licensing system to be operated in relation to discharges from local authority waste water treatment plants.

Source James Cooper

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Grace Colleran Born !

Everyone in Keville & O'Sullivan wish to congratulate Corina and Tony on the birth of their newest daughter Grace ! Grace was born at 2.15pm on Monday 24th 12 pounds 7 ounces. Mother and child are both doing great!

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A Big Welcome to our New Section Manager, Noreen Layden!

Noreen has just joined Keville & O’Sullivan Associates as Section Manager for the Ecology and EIS/planning divisions. She completed a Ph.D. in Environmental Science at the University of Limerick and her area of expertise includes wastewater and sludge treatment technology. Noreen also holds a B.Sc. (Ed.) in Natural Sciences (University of Limerick) and an M.Sc. in Environmental Science (Trinity College Dublin) in aquatic ecology and limnology. Other expertise includes project management, environmental management and ecological planning. We all delighted that she has joined the team and really look forward to working with her.

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Zebra Mussel Infestation of Lough Corrib

The Western Regional Fisheries Board has confirmed the presence of the introduced bivalve Zebra Mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) in Lough Corrib, which until now has remained free of this invasive species. Infestation of lakes in the Shannon system has already caused widespread losses in floral and faunal diversity. Due to its prolific reproductive rate, Zebra Mussel populations can increase rapidly, leading to severe ecological damage to aquatic systems and fisheries, and also to infrastructure such as water intakes and pipelines. The Western Regional Fisheries Board has confirmed that the species has infested a substantial area of the lake in an area north of Oughterard and on RTE News it was stated that ecological change is likely to be irreversible, with the existing population likely to spread quickly throughout the entire lake system.

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Kos Social Committee

On Friday September 21st, Keville & O'Sullivan staff visited City Limits in Oranmore for their Autumn Social Event to watch the Ireland V France rugby match in the Limits Sports Bar and for bowling. Bowling, in the City Limits bowling ally was won by Tony Colleran - Corina's husband, congratulations to Karen who was KOSA's top scorer! Fair play to everyone else too- I think we need a little more practice before we make the nationals...
WWW.CITYLIMITS.IE

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The breeding and wintering birds

The breeding and wintering birds in Ireland have not been the subject of a full atlas survey since 1991 and 1983/84 respectively. A new survey is planned between 2007 and 2011 that will cover both breeding and wintering birds. Fieldwork will start this November. The ireland coordinator, Brian Caffrey, will be giving a presentation on the scheme and how to become involved in it at 8 PM on Wednesday the 19th September at the Anno Santo Hotel, Threadneedle Road, Salthill. See http://www.birdwatchgalway.org or http://www.birdatlas.net/ for more information.

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A big congratulations

A big congratulations to our office administrator Aisling Conroy who recently graduated from the University of Limerick with a Bachelor of Business Studies with a major in Personnel Management. Being the most recent to join KOSA, Aisling has been working with Keville & O'Sullivan Associates for the last three months and has recently begun handling the human resources side of the business.  We look forward to working with her in the future and congratulate her on all her work over the last four years that has now finally paid off!

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Revamped Company Website Up and Running

After more than a few months “under construction”, the Keville & O’Sullivan Associates website has been given a major overhaul and is now available for all to see at the usual address on www.kosconsulting.com

 

The new website provides details on all the services provided by the company. A news section will keep visitors up to date on the latest happenings in the company.

 

The website will expand further over the coming months as more content on the services offered by the company is added.

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KOSA Gets Smart About Management

Keville & O'Sullivan Associates Ltd has invested in Rapport 3 Mini, an online practice management solution that will enable it to control and enhance its ongoing growth and success.

 

Rapport 3, a system developed by Cubic Interactive, comprises a number of components from a contacts and HR information database to an invoicing module and project management toolkit.  Keville & O’Sullivan selected the system because it was project-centric and would enable it to manage its projects, clients and contacts more easily.

 

Brian Keville, director of Keville & O’Sullivan, said:  “We have reached a period in our growth where we look to intelligent software tools to enhance the management of our business. 

 

“Rapport 3 was recommended to us by a local architectural firm and we were able to view online demonstrations that showed us how the system would work in the context of live examples.  The team at Cubic has been very professional and we are currently migrating our data into Rapport 3.  We look forward to reaping the full benefit”, he added.

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New Job Vacancies at Keville & O’Sullivan Associates

New Job Vacancies at Keville & O’Sullivan Associates

Keville & O’Sullivan Associates, as of today, Thursday 26th July 2007, are seeking to recruit four staff for the positions outlined below. A job vacancy advertisement appears in today's Irish Independent 'Jobs & Careers' supplement. The company always seeks to recruit staff of the highest calibre, who can maximise their expertise, enthusiasm and experience on the most varied and challenging projects.

Since being established in 2001, Keville & O’Sullivan Associates has grown to be one of the most progressive and professional Ecological and Environmental consultancies West of the Shannon. We are now planning a further phase of expansion, to meet the growing requirements of our existing clients and to expand our range of services to take advantage of new opportunities in the marketplace.

We are seeking to recruit staff of the highest calibre to fill the following new positions:

• Ecology Section Manager
• EIS & Planning Section Manager
• Ecologist
• Environmental Scientist

Full particulars for each position are available by contacting Keville & O’Sullivan Associates, Unit 24, Galway Technology Centre, Mervue Business Park, Galway (Phone 091 704856); on our website at www.kosconsulting.com/careers or by e-mailing aisling@kosconsulting.com
The closing date for applications is Friday 10th August.

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