Limerick community retains Tidy Towns silver medal

LIMERICK brought home one Silver Medal and five  Bronze Medals from this year’s Tidy Towns Competition. But behind that figure, lies a huge amount of work and a great deal of achievement by 56 different Tidy Towns committees and communities across the city and county. 

Once again, Adare was the star for Limerick, bringing home another Silver Medal and clocking up the county’s highest total mark of 335. “We got seven extra points which is a huge achievement,” said Cllr Bridie Collins who is chairperson of Adare Tidy Towns. 

But, just as last year, that still left them 11 points behind the overall winner, Glaslough, and  tantalisingly one mark short of a Gold Medal. Gold, Ms Collins explained, goes to those within ten marks of the overall winner. 

The standard has gone up and keeps going up, she added.  But she took encouragement from the fact that, in some categories, Adare outshone Glaslough and  she was very happy with the positive report from the judges.

“It is very comprehensive, a very good report... It really picks out where you went down and they tell you how to improve. They give you good guidelines.

“We really are aiming to win in the next few years,” she continued, and she was very heartened by the large numbers of volunteers who got involved this year and by the enthusiasm of committee members who are already planning for next year. 

A sensory garden, a Junior Tidy Towns and more emphasis on biodiversity will feature in those plans. 

Newcastle West has now brought home its eighth Bronze Medal and secured its biggest jump in marks for a number of years, Vicki Nash, the chairperson of the Tidy Towns Committee explained.

“It is hard to go up once you are into the medal category,” she said.

“Our report was so positive.” Sometimes, she added, reports can be very hard. “This was very helpful, very positive.”

The judges were impressed with the church, with the architecture of the Square, with the absence of litter and with the Mass Path, she added.

“It is very important, when you get the report, how you respond. If they take a negative tone, in the way they word it, it makes it harder to be upbeat and forward looking.”

Ballyagran won the Endeavour Award for Limerick, an award given to the community which clocks up the biggest increase in points in the county.  Ballyagran went up 16 points to 248 this year which, admits Maura Feehan, came as a wonderful surprise.

“We were set up as Ballaygran Development Association and this is only our second year entering the Tidy Towns,” Ms Feehan said. “We are only newbies.”

The award comes with a €500 cheque which will go towards the plans the new committee will now be making. 

Athea, former Endeavour winners, saw their marks jump by nine, to 294 but still have a distance to go to challenge Broadford (315) and Glin (312) in their category.

Templeglantine came second in Limerick in its category and all the towns and villages from the west that entered saw their marks increase.