It’s a gold star for tidy Ennis

ENNIS has struck gold in the Tidy Towns awards, netting just shy of €5,000 in this year’s competition, while Kilrush also won gold in its category.

Ennis took the gold title for Category G, a regional award for the Mid-West, the winning title for the county and was named as the winner of the smarter travel award for the Mid-West.
Kilrush did West Clare proud with a gold medal in its overall category, a commendation in the county awards and St Senan’s National School in Kilrush took a special prize for the schools award in the Mid-West Region.
Other Clare beneficiaries included Ballynacally, which took a silver medal in its category and a highly commended in the county awards.
Mountshannon scooped the bronze prize in its overall category, Killimer took the endeavour award for the county, while Tuamgraney Community Woodland took a special prize under the notice nature biodiversity award.
Speaking about Ennis’s success this year, Noel Crowley, chairman of the Ennis Tidy Towns Committee said, “We are delighted with the awards. It was a tough year for us with the conditions in Ennis following the ice and flooding but we managed to gain a point this year. In fact, that point was all we needed to have won the overall competition last year so the standard is going up all the time,” he said.
Mr Crowley explained the committee had come across a number of challenges this year but met them head on and were pleased that the hard work paid off.
“With the bad weather, hedging was destroyed and the flowers were not as good as what they used to be. The bypass was also a major challenge for us this year in terms of litter and we really had to concentrate on that. We took it on as a challenge and kept it very tidy. Generally speaking, there were a few comments made about things that were beyond our control, the river was a major one and even though we did go in there, it was not easy. They suggested we look at the river and prepare a wildlife amenity plan and that is in our plan going forward. We had anticipated that was what we need to do. The comments were generally quite positive but obviously, we can’t get perfect marks. They did encourage us to work even harder,” he said.
Mr Crowley added the committee recognised there are areas that would need improvement and plans were already underway this year but were not ready by the time the judging came along.
“We have a number of empty premises and we are hoping to work with the arts office to try and turn some of these into exhibition spaces for maybe the youth centre to highlight the work they do rather than just have them as an empty visual. We also hope the council would do a booklet on the heritage trail. The adjudicator commented on the grounds outside the courthouse being neglected and about the statue still being missing on the market roundabout but we hope to have that rectified by next year and we have worked very hard on it. We will be putting in a new sculpture there which will depict a market scene and we are hoping that Icarus will be relocated. We had that planned for this year but we expect that it will be done by the end of this year,” Mr Crowley confirmed.
He said there were a number of other projects that had started but also missed the adjudication including the secret garden off the Gort Road, which is expected to be developed over the next two years. A piece of sculpture to The Sisters of Mercy is to be installed by the County Museum by the end of the year, while another sculpture is to be installed for the Paupers’ Grave in Drumcliff.
Mr Crowley added the committee are hoping to expand going towards next year’s competition and are seeking increased involvement from local businesses and young people with the intention of developing sub-committees to focus on different aspects of the competition.
“This year, we had concentrated on setting up our website and outing our three-year plan together but we will be looking to evolve next year. We have had a great community involvement with members of the Civil Defence and Lions Club and local anglers and firemen have also helped out so it has been a community effort.
This is the first year of our three-year plan and we were praised highly for this, which we were delighted with and we hope that within the period of the plan, we will win the overall award again in that time,” he concluded.