This article is from page 41 of the 2011-09-06 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 41 JPG
SHANNON improved by three points in their Tidy Towns scoring this year, much to the delight of the hard-working committee.
A core group of four or five people meet at the town hall every Monday night and focus on keeping the town as clean as possible. Their efforts were rewarded when the results were announced yesterday evening, when 275 points were awarded, compared with 272 last year.
Improvements were made in a number of areas including landscaping, wildlife and natural amenities and litter control, while the residential areas impressed the adjudicators. The overall development approach dropped by one point this year – it moved down from 47 points to 46 out of a maximum of 50.
The PRO of the Tidy Towns committee in the town, Olive Bowen, said the result pleased everybody. “We are delighted. It is very, very hard to get a point. We are thrilled. Seven or eight years ago we were losing points. There was a lot of construction then. To go up three is excellent,” she said. “The focus now is back to work, no celebrating! We love doing it. We have great old banter,” said Olive. “Hail, rain or snow, we will meet at the Town Hall at 7 o’clock every Monday night.”
Among those who help out every week are founding member Tess Barry, her son Fintan, Olive Bowen, Gerry Fogarty and Joe Hogan.
The adjudicators’ report congratu- lated the committee on liaising with the local schools to improve the area. The hotels and restaurants were praised for their various features and colour co-ordination.
“Your committee has undertaken an impressive amount of planting. The flower beds along Bóthar Mór provide a nice splash of colour and impress the visitor on arrival. The town has vast areas of green spaces and parks and these were generally well maintained and presented to a high standard,” noted the adjudicators. “The landscaping presentation at the Town Hall was excellent and set a very high standard. A fine feature of the town is the many well presented Irish name signs,” added the report.
The information board on flora and fauna near the Wetlands project was also congratulated and was described as “educational”.
“As a rural town, Shannon is rich in natural wildlife, green areas and habitats and perhaps a good way of raising awareness of environmental issues amongst the local community would be for the committee to further liaise with the local schools to encourage local wildlife surveys,” advised the adjudicators.
The committee was congratulated for its efforts on litter control. The residential areas throughout the town were also praised for their good standard of presentation and maintenance. “Your ongoing promotion of estates competitions is a very good initiative and can only have an increased beneficial effect over time,” stated the report.