Disappointment at cancellation of Tidy Towns

DESPITE disappointment about the cancellation of this year’s Super Valu Tidy Towns competition, Gorey Tidy Towns hopes that the work carried out since last summer will be taken into account in next year’s competition.

Describing that cancellation as understandable, Chairperson Billy Halford said that achievements should not go unrecognised.

‘The judges assess work carried out from June 1 onwards each year, and visit the town once or twice during the summer. We have achieved a lot since last June including three new murals in the Civic Square, the Gorey 400 Trees project, the three public bottle filling stations around town, the Market Square graveyard restoration, the Stop Food Waste Challenge and much more.

‘We had just two months more of work to go before this year’s application had to be submitted, so we’d like to think that the work done in the ten months before the shut down will be assessed by the adjudicator in 2021 as we look to retain our bronze medal status,’ he said.

The ongoing restrictions will pose a big challenge for the volunteers and Tus workers when normal services resume. ‘

‘Our CE Scheme and Tus workers and our volunteers have not been out since early March. All the litter picking, weeding, strimming and tidying that they normally do has not been done. The loss of the National Spring Clean and the North Wexford 2K Clean competitions in April will also have an impact. The council staff have been picking litter in the town centre, but outside of those areas it’s going to be a huge uphill battle.’

As Gorey Tidy Towns activities are on hold for now, Billy said he hopes members of the public will still play their part in keeping their local area clean in whatever way they can.

Former tidiest village in Wexford winners, Ballycanew Tidy Towns marked 25 years in existence last year and the a new energised committee were looking forward to making a come back in the competition in 2020.

The competition itself, which recognises the work of local communities under a number of categories, has been running since 1958.