Westport named Mayo’s tidiest town

TUNING IN Members of the Westport Tidy Towns committee watched the results of the 2021 competition online from the RDS in Dublin, in the company of Cllr Christy Hyland, volunteers and council staff, in the Town Hall Theatre. Pic: Frank Dolan

Oisin McGovern

WESTPORT has been named as Mayo’s tidiest town in the 2021 SuperValu Tidy Town Awards.
The West Mayo town picked up a prize of €1,000 after being named the tidiest Mayo town with a return of 351 marks at the announcement in Dublin last Friday.
Westport has won the the top overall prize on three previous occasions, in 2001, 2006 and 2018.
Chairperson of Westport Tidy Towns Rhona Chambers said the group are ‘delighted’ with their result.
“To come home with the county and the gold medal, we’re delighted with that,” Ms Chambers told The Mayo News yesterday evening (Monday).
Ms Chambers thanked all the volunteers, businesses and local people or their ‘huge work’ in securing the award for the town.
“Every town and every village had more time to be out cleaning and businesses took a lot more pride to be out and make them look well,” she said when asked about the challenges and opportunities presented by pandemic restrictions.
Ballina also secured a bronze medal award and a prize of €400 after achieving 330 marks in its category.
Mulranny scored a double success, winning €800 on being ‘highly commended’ and a further €400 when selected as a bronze medal winner in its category. The seaside village scored 342 points in total.
Belmullet was also named among the award winners, being ‘commended’ in the county category and winning €500 after registering a score of 341.
Castlebar won a gold medal in its category for the third time after increasing its marks to 340.
There were also impressive category performances for Cong and Ballinrobe, with 326 and 305 points respectively.
A breakdown of all Mayo scores in each category are as follows:
Category A: Cong – 326, Kilkeeran – 313, Bonniconlon – 311, Clogher – 311, Kilmaine – 311, Carracastle – 246, Lecanvey – 230. Category B: Mulranny – 342, Belcarra – 321, Balla – 318, Ballycastle – 317, Louisburgh – 312, The Neale – 292, Ballindine – 279, Shrule – 258
Category C: Belmullet – 341, Kiltimagh – 315, Ballyhaunis – 304, Swinford –291. Category D: Ballinrobe – 305, Claremorris – 279. Category E: Westport – 351. Category F: Castlebar – 340, Ballina – 330.