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Kildalkey Tidy Towns

Tidy Towns Competition 2015 Adjudication Report

Community Involvement & Planning :

Kildalkey TidyTowns Group is very welcome to the 2015 SuperValu national TidyTowns competition. We thank you for entering the competition this year again and hope your success to date encourages you to enter year on year. Thank you for your application form and accompanying information – all useful on adjudication day. It was our first visit to Kildalkey and we were pleased with the level of voluntary commitment shown by the community of Kildalkey to maintaining and presenting the village to its best. It is heartening to read how well many of the community come together to assist each other in maintaining estates and the like, such as when each estate comes together to help the other, and the sharing of tools and equipment – this emanates the spirit and ethos of the competition. Funding is an issue for many small centres and your bartering system is a novel approach ideally suited for the economic times we’re in – well done! You are communicating well with the wider community – keep up this good level of community engagement. Thanks to the local businesses who also have contributed financially to Kildalkey TidyTowns, without this assistance keeping Kildalkey clean, well presented and litter free would be much more difficult.

Built Environment & Streetscape:

We visited St. Dymphynas Cemetery and Well, the cemetery was lovingly cared for. We admired the simply decorated entrance pillars into the graveyard, blue pillars hand-painted with a black cross. These were getting a touch-up on adjudication day. We also admired Saint Dympna's Roman Catholic Church set back from the road. Nice planters were noted at the Village Inn and we thought the wooden panels have been used to good effect to give some privacy to the car parking area. The Parochial House is impressive and we noted the fresh railings and also the new railings at the Pastoral Centre across the road. We noted a wall beside the Snug House Bar has been recently painted and thought that new gates had been erected here, thank you for taking on board the comments from last year’s adjudication report. We are sure you can concur that it has improved the streetscape here. Snuggle Muffins Montessori looks bright and colourful.

Landscaping & Open Spaces:

Your adjudicator has no issue with you not proceeding with your hang-baskets this year. Those not involved in the competition think it is little more than picking litter, keeping streets clean and sticking up hanging baskets in the summer. The competition has long since evolved from past days of pretty hanging baskets and litter picks. Perhaps you could use some of the funds saved to purchase a semi-mature tree which could be planted in the space at the school staff car-park. Investment in native trees and native hedgerows is important. A very useful document for communities is available from the Heritage Council entitled ‘Conserving Wildlife in Towns and Villages’ and lists native Irish tree and shrubs suitable for planting in towns that can enhance wildlife also. This will help in the competition as the focus is towards providing year-round structure in planting schemes.

Wildlife, Habitats and Natural Amenities:

You are perhaps finding it hard getting to grips with this category. We are pleased that you have conducted a wildlife survey with the local school and have plans to construct a bug hotel over the summer. We suggest that you speak to the environmental officer at Meath County Council or the local branch of the Irish Wildlife Trust who should be able to point you in the right direction. Is there a community area in the village that you can use for your wildlife projects? Remember this category is about raising awareness of the natural amenities in your area.

Sustainable Waste & Resource Management:

Your bartering idea fits perfectly in this category and perhaps it is something that you could develop as a community. Rossi’s Takeway is managing its business more sustainably in terms of oil recycling and reduction in packaging etc. Paint donations could be mixed and reused to good effect. We suggest that you review the literature available on the TidyTowns website on the Sustainable Waste and Resource Management Category, it has been revised this year. Once again, we advise that you check out the following website for tips and advice to help you with this category: http://localprevention.ie/tidy-towns/. This category also expects community engagement and awareness raising. Perhaps the Free Wee Library ™ initiative would be of interest to your community. Check it out on www.freeweelibrary.com

Tidiness & Litter Control:

Residential Streets & Housing Areas:

At Greenville we noted the very well maintained green area and thought the houses were presented to a high standard, likewise at Moyrath View. The Meadows is fortunate to have a large expanse of communal green area. Pay attention to grass at the base of trees here, we recommend to hand cut the grass so as not to cause any damage to the trees. In Kildalkey Wood please can you check tree ties as there would appear to be a number that are not required that could be causing damage to the trees here. In Moyview, presentation of houses and gardens was to a high standard however beware of weeds at the kerbside edges. Kerbside weeds need tackled in a few estates. Encourage homeowners with roadside frontage to paint their front walls. It was encouraging to see a man carefully maintaining his boundary hedge by hand on adjudication day.

Approach Roads, Streets & Lanes:

Street lighting was admired in the village. Perhaps the residents fronting the Ballivor Road between the 50 km signs and the village could volunteer to strim along the roadside here. Both sides of the road verge are quite overgrown and this detracts from the neat presentation previously seen approaching the 50 km signs from Ballivor. TidyTowns encourages people to ‘look after their own patch’. Significant strimming or cutting is not required as we advocate for some wildness and growth along roadside verge to act as wildlife corridors. Perhaps cut/strim a metre width to give the impressions that the area is being actively maintained.

Concluding Remarks:

Tidy Towns concerns wildlife, heritage, resource efficiency, environmental awareness, civic spirit, presentation of the village with the aim to raising the prosperity of the area. Most importantly, TidyTowns is about working together and taking pride in your local community. We think Kildalkey TidyTowns group is working hard to do all of the above. Congratulations.