Tallaght Village Tidy Towns project receiving positive feedback and attracting new members

Tallaght Community Council (TCC) volunteers launched the Tallaght village Tidy Towns project almost a month ago to ensure Tallaght village was benefiting from the national initiative.

Twice weekly events have been taking place since June 1, and are attracting new volunteers week on week. TCC have received a very positive welcome by village residents and businesses – with many businesses pledging support for the long term.

“Tallaght village has lots of potential to become a clean, attractive and pleasant place to visit. With continued TLC, we can develop lots of attractive features in our village. The first month has been a flurry of activity and thanks to our volunteers and support from several businesses very significant improvements are already obvious to see on the village streets,” said Liz Kennedy, TCC Volunteer Chair.

In the first month, TCC are delighted to reflect on some very significant improvements already delivered through their Tidy Town project that benefit everyone who lives, works or visits the village.

“We would like to say a sincere thank you to the new  volunteers who have joined us during June. It has been great to begin to exchange ideas and see improvement week on week. PM Group and AWS have supported us also with staff volunteers in June – who showed a real keen interest in rolling their sleeves up and getting stuck into sweeping, painting, planting and litter picking.

“AWS carried out 2 volunteer days in the village where over 35 volunteers spent the day in the village doing really physical work. Many of the volunteers were Tallaght natives who wanted to give back to their community. This kind of partnership makes a huge positive impact. Thanks to Joanne and Tom in AWS and Cathtriona in PM Group who helped make this happen.”

The Tidy Towns project have so far achieved many real improvements through volunteers and partnerships; completed 10 clean-up / maintenance events; partnered with nine Tallaght businesses on events so far ( PM Group, AWS, Joe Cole Creatives, MRA, The Square, Lidl, Graph Print, iRes and Café Aon Scéal); invested over 200 volunteer man hours directly in physical improvement projects; begun the graffiti removal from on street utility boxes; cleaned and painted 130 iron bollards in the village (sponsored by AWS); cleaned and painted 10 iron lampposts (sponsored by AWS); installed 10 new high quality street planters on Main Street and the Old Blessington Road (sponsored by AWS); repaired and repainted the hoarding on the Priorsgate Site (carried out by iRes); weeded and planted the Newtown flowerbed; sanded and painted the 11 existing planters on Main Road; weeded and replanted the 4 x tree flowerbed on Main Street; planted all 20 street planters with high quality native trees and pollinators (sponsored by AWS); replaced the planters with 10 tonnes of local high quality top soil (Landscape Depot); planted 20 native tall yew trees – super for biodiversity (Plant Depot) and planted over 200 new pollinator plants in the street planters.

In the coming summer months, the TCC Tidy Towns project will be continuing the twice weekly meetings on Wednesdays and Sunday to focus on litter picking or small maintenance projects and anyone who is interested can join in.