This article is from page 18 of the 2013-09-10 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 18 JPG
THE hard-working members of Ennis Tidy Towns were in jubilant form last evening as they celebrated not one but two national victories.
Just hours after being named Ireland’s Tidiest Urban Centre, the county town was also shortlisted for the 2013 Tourism Towns Award, bringing into question last week’s disappoint IBAL results.
The anti-litter league, Irish Business Against Litter, last Monday declared Ennis one of the three most littered towns in the country.
There was a lot of disappointment at the news the town had dropped 13 places since last year on the litter league.
One week on however and the National Tidy Town’s Committee declared the town the Tidiest Urban Centre in the country and third in the overall competition.
In 2005, the town and its team of Tidy Town volunteers had a similar experience when Ennis won the overall national Tidy Towns competition, a week after a particularly damming report from IBAL.
Fáilte Ireland yesterday (Monday) also disagreed with IBAL’s findings and confirmed Ennis has made the shortlist of ten top towns from across the country selected for its 2013 Tourism Towns Award.
The other towns competing for the honours are Cobh, County Cork; Drogheda, County Louth; Kenmare, County Kerry; Kilkenny, County Kilkenny; Letterkenny, County Donegal; Mulranny, County Mayo; Murrisk, County Mayo; Tralee, County Kerry and Westport, County Mayo.
The ten commended towns will now be visited in the autumn by external assessors who will meet with town representatives to further explore and evaluate the town’s commitment to tourism.