National prize for Mullingar at Tidy Towns awards
Mullingar has won €7,000 as winner of a national award at the SuperValu Tidy Towns awards held on Friday last in Dublin, at which the overall winner was Ennis.
Mullingar, which received 316 marks out of a possible 470, was named as winner of the Agent Brite Litter Awareness award.
It also featured, alongside Ballinahown (344 marks) and Tyrrellspass (341 marks) as a bronze medal winner. Each received €400.
Athlone has been named as one of 30 gold medal winners in the awards. Awarded 335 points, Athlone was just 20 points behind Ennis.
The county award for Westmeath – which brings with it a prize of €1,000 – went to Ballinahown; the €800 highly commended award went to Tyrrellspass; Athlone won the commended award, for which the prize is €500.
A €500 endeavour award went to Clonmellon, which received 262 marks; Kilbeggan has won a similar amount as third runner-up in the Climate Action and Air Quality Award category.
Commentaries
In their commentary on Mullingar, the judges described it as “a handsome town with many fine heritage features and a wealth of recreational amenity opportunities”.
Noting that this was Mullingar’s 34th year of participation in the Tidy Towns competition, the adjudicators commented that the committee has created strong links with a wide variety of groups and statutory bodies as well as the business community and sporting organisations and is well poised for success.
“Well done to those students from the CBS and the National school that did so much excellent landscaping work and appreciation is extended to the TY students also,” the judges commented.
There was praise for the Mullingar Heritage Trail App, and congratulations on the acquisition of the Tidy Towns van which is used to transport equipment and collect bags of rubbish from different locations. Also praised was the group’s Covid activities; its use of social media and its new newsletter.
“We note and appreciate the input of CE and TUS workers together with members of the Men’s Shed.
“We look forward to welcoming the planned new Junior Tidy Towns committee on board. We anticipate great wildlife actions ahead,” the judges said.