by Bernie English
ADARE has covered itself in glory at the Mid-West regional Tidy Towns awards, taking a gold medal and the county winner’s title.
This year’s awards for the Mid West region were presented at a prize-giving ceremony in Ennis last week by Environment Minister Phil Hogan and Niamh Skally of competition sponsors, SuperValu.
Adare took took a regional gold medal as well as the title of county winner. Ardpatrick and Newcastlewest were awarded bronze medals.
Galbally and Athea were highly commended and Adare also won an award for best bring bank recycling facility. Nicholas Street and the Medieval quarter in the city took an urban and rural village award.
The overall winner for the region was Ennis which had already retained the title of Ireland’s Tidiest Large Urban Centre at the National Awards ceremony in September.
Presenting the awards, Minister Hogan said he was delighted to have the opportunity to acknowledge the efforts of TidyTowns groups across this region, and to pay tribute to the very many enthusiastic and dedicated volunteers who get involved in this great competition every year.
“The unselfish effort and the generosity displayed by these volunteers really does make a difference to our communities”, he said.
The Minister also thanked TidyTowns’ sponsor SuperValu for its 22 year involvement in the competition.
The TidyTowns competition has been running since 1958 and is organised by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government.
