This article is from page 40 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 40 JPG
IT’S 30 years now since Clare first scaled the heights of the National Tidy Towns when Mountshannon brought the overall title home for the first time ever, but it’s in the last decade that the county has showcased itself as one of the leading lights of the hugely prestigious competition that dates from 1958.
Figures secured by The Clare People this week give a breakdown of how far the county has come in 10 years – from the smallest centres like Bridgetown with less than 200 of a population through to the county capital of Ennis that has emerged as the flagship of Clare Tidy Towns in recent years.
Firstly, it’s in terms of participat- ing centres, with the numbers of towns and villages taking part in the competition having mushroomed in recent years on the back of greater community involvement and awareness of the importance of the local environment.
In 2002, the number of entries from Clare was 27, but in the intervening decade that has risen by 22 per cent, with 34 entries in 2011, but more significant than that rise in participation has been a huge jump in the standard of entries from Clare.
Pride of place in this regard goes to centres like Ballynacally – 10 years ago it returned an overall mark of 218, but in the intervening period has made rapid strides through the ranks of Tidy Towns in the county, winning a Gold Medal in this year’s event af- ter returning a hugely impressive mark of 305.
Once again, Ennis has proven itself to be Clare’s most consistent Tidy Towns performer, winning a Gold Medal in every year over the past decade. Ennis’ drive to the top started at the beginning of the decade and culminated with overall victory in 2005, while they’ve maintained those high standards since then, winning the Tidiest Large Urban Centre Award in 2006 through to another Gold Medal-winning performance this year.
Meanwhile, Mountshannon’s enduring involvement in Tidy Towns received national recognition once more thanks to their Silver Medalwinning performance, 30 years after they blazed a trail for the county by winning the overall award.
At the presentation of the awards in Dublin on Monday, Minister for the Environment, Phil Hogan, praised those from Clare who participated in this year’s competition.
“I continue to be impressed by the dedication and enthusiasm of all those involved in the Tidy Towns effort,” he said. “These people volunteer their time and effort, year on year, in order to make their communities better places.
“The results of their efforts are to be seen in attractive, well cared for towns and villages throughout the country. It is clear that working together, getting out there and getting things done increases peoples’ pride in where they live and helps to build stronger communities,” he added.