Local Green Party representative for South East Inner City, Claire Wheeler has welcomed today’s announcement by ESB that up to 6,000 jobs and training opportunities are to be created through green projects and initiatives.

Max the Bunny has lost weight. Last year M&S's best-selling chocolate animal inhabited a 2ft-high plastic circular drum made up of three pieces of rigid polymer and cardboard. This year the Easter rabbit with the ghastly rictus grin comes in a simple lightweight vacuum bag made of thin film that can be recycled. Max's "burrow" now weighs just a 10th what it did.

The Dublin Transportion office is preparing it's Strategic Transport Plan (2030Vision.ie) Now is your chance to have your say on the measures that need to be taken to fix Dublin's transport problems.

You can submit your views on the various measures proposed on the 2030Vison.ie website, between now and the 22nd March. 

The City Council has hired RPS Consultants to plan a strategy to supply water to the entire Dublin Region into the future. Many options are being considered, including piping water to Dublin from the Shannon. I believe that it would be much more cost-effective and environmentally sound to instead focus on repairing leaks, and on water conversation measures such as using rainwater and greywater for toilet-flushing in apartments. The deadline for submissions is Friday the 27th February 2009.

The Dublin City Council is about to revise the Development Plan. This is one of the main powers of elected councillors. The plan outlines what sort of development can go where, and contains various policies, and initiatives to strengthen communities and protect our natural heritage.

The Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA), which is separate from Dublin City Council, has been conducting pre-statutory consultation for a draft planning scheme for Poolbeg. I have attended the public meetings, and am on the ‘Special Interest Group’, set up to discuss the issues. The DDDA wants an extensive, high-density development, at Poolbeg.

I believe that before the Plan can be finished, it is vital to first safeguard our wonderful natural amenity bordering Dublin Bay, to guarantee the protection of wildlife, and to have an extensive anti-flooding strategy.

Claire Wheeler, the local area representative of the Green party for the South East Inner City, today warmly welcomed the Government’s announcement of funding of €320,000 to Community Development projects in the area.

The choice of thermal treatment is based on outdated, arbitrary criteria