by Skibbereen Tidy Towns
In the Tidy Towns calendar it has been a busy spring and summer with lots of events happening around the town in preparation for the annual judging of the Supervalu Tidy Towns competition which takes place during the months of June to August. For several years now our marks have been increasing and this year we are hopeful of moving closer towards achieving a silver medal for Skibbereen.
April:
On 14 April we participated in the annual ‘County Clean Up‘ sponsored by KWD. 21 amazing volunteers gave up their Saturday mornings and collected 30 bags of litter from the approach roads to Skibbereen.
Also in April, the committee and volunteers celebrated the birthday of a long serving member, Timmy McDonnell.
April closed out with a presentation to the Skibbereen Tidy Towns group at the County Mayor’s community awards ceremony for 2018.
May:
A team of volunteers from Spearline planted 9 white birch trees in Mill Road, which were also generously sponsored by Spearline. Since then, the planting around each tree by Tidy Towns has taken off and the effect is gorgeous. A fantastic example of collaboration in the community.
Starting in May, Skibbereen participated in a 3-week anti-litter challenge organised by Cork County Council. The challenge aims to raise awareness of litter pollution and motivates communities to reduce litter.
June:
The ‘Clean Sweep through Skibbereen’ week long campaign had a great response from business and community alike. A total of 60 volunteers across the week were involved in all sorts of clean-up activities and many businesses did great work on their shopfronts and premises.
July:
Weekly work evenings continued although somewhat challenged due to the lack of rainfall to ensure an adequate supply of water for the planters. Did you know that we have a large tank that collects rainwater adjacent to the town hall for watering the flowers around the Square?
July also saw the installation of 6 new planters adjacent to the Uilinn: West Cork Arts Centre ahead of the Coming Home exhibition, on show in Skibbereen until 13 October next.
These are scheduled every Tuesday evening at 7pm. Whether your preference is planting, weeding, watering or just general maintenance there’s something for everyone. The net result is a cleaner and tidier town that we can all to be proud of. We should also recognise the work done every day by the county council and participants in the community employment scheme. As partners to Skibbereen Tidy Towns their contribution is key to keeping the town looking well.
As we drive in and out of our local areas and estates it is easy to miss the weeds growing at the kerbside or the pieces of forgotten litter. Take a few minutes and have a look around your estate and pick up anything that shouldn’t be there. For scheduled estate clean-ups we can provide green bags to collect litter and have it collected by our county council partners.
We are always looking for more volunteers to join us for the weekly Tuesday work evenings. If you feel that you could and would like to come out and join us please feel free to do so. We meet at 7pm behind the Fairfield bar.
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Featured image courtesy of Pixabay
Tidy Towns logo courtesy of www.sustainableskibbereen.com
Skibbereen Tidy Towns 