Camp Sites : Castle Saunderson

The inaugural meeting of the Castle Saunderson All Ireland Scouting Jamboree Development Steering Committee was held recently in the Cavan Business and Technology Park, Cavan. The project is a joint partnership between Cavan County Council, Scouting Ireland and the Northern Ireland Scout Council. Scouting Ireland is represented on the committee by Chief Scout, Michael John Shinnick, Niall Walsh (National Treasurer), Eamonn Lynch (CEO) and Damien O’Sullivan (Campsites Support Officer). They will work closely with the four representatives from Cavan County council who will provide administrative support. The committee will oversee the tendering process for work to be started soon on the development of the site.

The role of this committee is to:

· Oversee the overall direction of the development of the Castle Saunderson facility until all funding has been expended

· Ensure that active citizenship training, interculturalism training and peace and reconciliation training is provided to scout leaders, staff, and the management committee

· Ensure that the Castle Saunderson facility is developed to the highest standard taking into account models of best practice throughout Europe.

· Oversee the evaluation of the Castle Saunderson All Ireland Scouting Jamboree Project

· Ensure SEUPB requirements are adhered to.

The Castle Saunderson Project involves the development of a 34 acre modern camping site with indoor facilities. The project is being funded by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB) through the European Union’s Peace III Programme.

The development of the facility will be undertaken by Cavan County Council in agreement with Scouting Ireland who are the owners of the site and when work is completed, management of the facility will be the sole responsibility of Scouting Ireland.

Cavan County Council has begun the process of tendering for the development of the facility. The approach being adopted is the Design and Build approach through the Competitive Dialogue process.

Expressions of interest have been received and are currently being independently assessed. When five successful bidders have been identified they will be given a Core Requirements Documents detailing exactly what is required and they will be invited to submit detailed design ideas based on this briefing document.

This document is currently being prepared and will be completed within the next fortnight.

By way of an input from any member of Scouting Ireland, if you have seen any innovative designs while you were camping this summer or have any suggestions for designs forward them to Damien O’Sullivan dosullivan@scouts.ie within the next 10 days. Pictures or drawings would be particularly welcome.