Tidy Towns group hopes to turn silver into gold
NOW THAT the weather has begun to turn, volunteers with the Wexford Tidy Towns group are planning to be out in force, targeting various areas of the town ahead of the all-important adjudicator visits which will take place at the end of June.
Two years ago, Wexford won a silver medal and, last year, it retained that honour.
Phil Murphy, a volunteer with the group said they were really pushing to compete for gold this year but expressed her concern over the ongoing issue of littering. In addition to that, the treacherous weather conditions over the past few months, weeks when the group would have been out and about, tending to vairous issues and areas, has not helped the cause.
‘We went to Kaat Strand last week and picked up 71 bags of rubbish which is awful. Dumping, cigarette butts and dog foul continue to be the main problems for us.’
Ms Murphy also appealed for volunteers, saying that they had a core group of regulars who turned up year-after-year but they needed to expand their numbers. The group is appealing to residents in housing estates to take ownership of their own areas and organise clean-ups. ‘We will provide gloves, litter pickers, etc and, most importantly, we will collect any rubbish that is picked up and take it away, so people won’t have to worry about disposing of it themselves.’
Phil said that they would be targeting a number of areas in the coming weeks including The Rocks where an annual cleanup takes place. If anyone would like to volunteer with the group, they can be contacted through the Wexford Tidy Towns Facebook page. The group meets every Saturday from 10 a.m. and, from May on, will meet on a specified weekday as well.