Community spirit secures two-in-row for Westport Tidy Towns

ON THE DOUBLE  Liam Campion, Chairperson of Westport Tidy Towns, holds the Tidy Towns trophy as Westport claimed the award for Ireland’s Tidiest Large Town for the second year running. Also pictured are Martin Kelleher, Managing Director of SuperValu and Michael Ring, TD, Minister for Rural and Community Development, surrounded by members of Westport Tidy Towns Committee.  Pic: Naoise Culhane

Westport is named as Ireland’s Tidiest Large Town for the second year in succession

Anton McNulty

THE community spirit in Westport is the reason behind the town claiming the title of Ireland’s Tidiest Large Town in the 2018 SuperValu TidyTowns Awards for the second successive year, according to the Chairperson of Westport Tidy Towns committee.
The winners of the 2018 SuperValu TidyTowns Awards were announced by Minister Michael Ring at yesterday’s (Monday) awards ceremony at The Helix in Dublin ,with Westport reclaiming their crown as Ireland’s Tidiest Large Town. The town also won the County Award for Mayo, received a Gold Medal and increased their overall score by five marks on 2017.
Westport, who have won the overall title on three occasions, were just three marks behind Listowel, who was named as Ireland’s Tidiest Town for the first time.
Speaking to The Mayo News as the Westport delegation made their way home from Dublin, Liam Campion, Chairman of Westport Tidy Towns said they were ‘over the moon’ to reclaim the title of Ireland’s Tidiest Large Town.
“To retain the title of Ireland’s Tidiest Large Town is unbelievable and was a real bonus for us. We won the Young Tidy Towns committee award, the county award and received a Gold Medal and also gained five marks on last year which shows that we have continued to push up the standards in the town. We are over the moon,” he said.

Co-operation
Mr Campion added that their achievements would not have been possible without the businesses and clubs of the town buying into the tidy towns initiatives.
“This success is down to the community spirit we have in Westport where clubs and business have signed up to what we are trying to do and help every week with our Tuesday night clean-up. Our initiatives like banning plastic straws in pubs has helped us this year, as has the renovation of the phone-box at the clock, where we teamed up with the Mens’ Shed and the Order of Malta. It is about the community working together and taking pride in what we do,” he said.
While Westport was once again the standard bearer for the county in the Tidy Towns competition, there was also good news for Castlebar, as the county town also received a Gold Medal. Mulranny, Belmullet and Ballina all won Bronze Medals. Mulranny was also highly commended in the county category for Mayo, Belmullet was a highly commended winner in the Gaeltacht award, while Binghamstown won the Endeavour Award for Mayo.
This year marked the 60th anniversary year of the TidyTowns competition and there was a record number of 883 entries from towns and villages throughout the country in the SuperValu National TidyTowns competition.

Effort paid off
Congratulating Westport and the Mayo communities on their success, Minister Ring said all their dedication and effort has paid off.
“I commend all of the 36 communities from Mayo that entered the competition. Their towns and villages are the better for their participation and we owe the volunteers that got involved a debt of gratitude. The voluntary work that people put in to their communities brings great pride, a great sense of achievement and great camaraderie to those communities. That is why this competition has flourished for 60 years,” he said. 
Minister Ring also announced a special allocation of €1.4 million to support the work of individual Tidy Towns committees around the country in order to mark the 60th anniversary of the event.
“I have no doubt that towns and villages across the country will benefit hugely from this investment. Wherever you have active Tidy Towns committees, it gives the place a real boost and creates the environment for tourism,” he added.