Hard work pays off for Tidy Towns groups

HARD work and determination paid off for Tidy Towns groups in South Dublin following the announcement of the National Tidy Towns results.

Among the groups involved in this year’s competition were Woodstown, Clondalkin, Palmerstown and Lucan.

All groups scored high and were pleased with the outcome, with Woodstown picking up a national award in the biodiversity newcomer category with a Pollinator Award and a prize of €1,000.

“We are delighted to have picked up a national award. Its our first time to win a national award,” said Woodstown co-ordinator Neil Reid.

“We are six years in the competition and the response from the residents in the community over the past few years has been fantastic. The reaction since we won the prize has been fantastic and the residents in Woodstown are proud of our achievement.

“For the estate to be recognised is a great achievement and we hope to continue the momentum into the future to make our area much better.”

Members of the Clondalkin Tidy Towns cleaning up the village

Woodstown is made up of a committee of 10 people, but they have over 200 volunteers who have worked very hard over the past 12 months.

“Once we started up Tidy Towns other people got involved and I would encourage other people in other areas to get involved as it gives everyone a big lift,” said Neil.

Meanwhile, in Clondalkin the score rose from 298 in 2019 to 310 in 2021 and the committee is happy with the outcome.

John Cawley, secretary of Clondalkin Tidy Towns said: “We’re very happy with the result. Our volunteers make a huge contribution to Clondalkin village and play a big role – it’s great to be recognised.

“We came 13th in Dublin. We are really happy to have increased our points and we are hoping to improve on that next year.

“We meet every Saturday in the village and have a good team of litter pickers along with people tidying and weeding the area. Tidy Towns is a good way of meeting other people in the community,” said John.

Kathleen and Annie Gill tidying up a flower bed in Clondalkin village

Clondalkin Tidy Towns has 50+ volunteers and mainly meet at 10am on Saturday at Tuthill’s.

Lucan Tidy Towns secured a bronze medal for the third year running and is 10 points higher with 332 on the previous year.

“We would have liked a silver medal, but we are pleased with it and we did a lot of work this year. The people in the community really enjoy Tidy Towns and for some of the volunteers it’s a new lease of life,” said Lucan Tidy Towns chairperson Kevin O’Loughlin.

Lucan did a huge amount of work and installed pollinator friendly plants which help bees and also planted seeds and new plants which will bring life to the village. Hard work pays off for Tidy Towns groups.

“We are in Tidy Towns over 30 years and are one of the longest groups in South Dublin involved in the competition,” said Kevin.

The group has between 15 and 20 members working each week in the Lucan area.

Palmerstown Tidy Towns are now seven years in existence and they secured 293 points.

The group has plans for some big projects in the future and meet up every Wednesday and Saturday morning.