The entry for this year’s competition was submitted to the Tidy Towns Unit of the Department of Rural and Community Development in May. A competition adjudicator uses the entry to guide their visit to the town that can take place any time between June and August. In recent years, the visit has taken place in mid-July, however since it is unannounced, we have no way of knowing until after the event when the competition results are announced in the autumn and the reports made publicly available. This newsletter summarises the entry highlights in the first four of the eight competition categories for Skibbereen during the judging year that ran from June 2022 to May 2023.
Community – Your Planning and Involvement
The entry form offers guidance for each category of the competition. An extract is included for each category so that readers of this newsletter can appreciate the context and background of what the adjudicator looks for and what we strive to achieve.
Marks are awarded for the overall quality of the Entry Form, town/village map and appropriateness of backup material submitted with your entry. Other key issues are the participation of the local community, businesses, schools and youth in general; working partnerships with local civic agencies; works carried out and appropriate projects completed; existence of an achievable updated TidyTowns Plan. Consideration will be given to social inclusion, whole of community approach, the role of volunteers and new residents in activities.
Guidance for Community category of entry form, 2023
In our last newsletter we reflected on the key challenge in this category relating to the decreasing level of regular volunteers. By regular we mean the usual Tuesday work evenings from Easter through the summer months. The entry form asks specifically for two separate figures: the number involved in our committee and the number who volunteer but are not on the committee. In 2022 the adjudicator commented on this saying, ‘the current number of volunteers at 3, is considered quite low for a town the size of Skibbereen.’ Ouch. It seemed that the huge efforts of the various groups and schools who do amazing work to help us out with a variety of projects during the year does not make up for this matter of low volunteer numbers at our weekly clean-ups. Perhaps a mindset shift is required by the competition organisers 🤔…
Volunteers from O’Donovan Rossa GAA club helping to weed and sweep their neighbouring Memorial Park.
Following our AGM in February, we established a new committee and held regular meetings supported by a WhatsApp group and email distribution list.
This has proven to be an effective process of communication and our committee currently has an active membership of 12.
Many of the committee make up the Tuesday evening workforce and we have not been successful in attracting interest from new volunteers for these evenings. However, we have had better success with support coming from individuals who may not be available on Tuesday evenings, and instead have adopted an area to maintain somewhere in the town, for example, a park, a residential area, a public area. You know who you are and we thank you for what you do for Skibbereen. If anyone has informally adopted an area that we might not know about or if you would like to get involved in this way please do get in touch using any of our communications channels.
The adjudicator will be pleased to note that we have taken on board their comment from 2022 regarding the size of the entry and the 2023 entry form was significantly reduced in size owing to non-inclusion of photographs of projects that the adjudicator will experience first-hand by following the map. Not a small task by any means, but a reduction from 61 to 52 pages is a result in our opinion!
Before closing out this category we must give a shoutout to our local County Council team as well as our amazing Community Employment team, both teams are small in size but do wonderful work across the town. Thank you all.
Teddy and a few of the then 5th class boys of St Patrick’s BNS. Thanks a million lads.
Streetscape & Public Places
Buildings: Conservation and presentation of heritage buildings and quality of shop-fronts will be considered, taking account of the design, sustainability, accessibility, usability and suitability of new structures or civic amenity buildings for all people, regardless of age, size, ability or disability. Please highlight the efforts made to address derelict sites and unoccupied buildings even if unsuccessful.
Public Spaces: Consideration will be given to; squares, parks, streetscape, paving, landscaping and street furniture mindful of sustainability and access for all. Condition of street lighting, building facade lighting, appropriately designed signage and way-finding relating to streets and place nameplates. Attention will be given to the presentation of parking locations, historical trails, walkways and access points to local amenities or facilities and the general use of the Irish language.
Guidance for Streetscape and Public Spaces category of entry form, 2023
As part of the Public Realm improvements an extension was added to the town hall, upgrading the facilities, and making it wheelchair accessible. For those of us who attended the recent production of ‘Spirit Level’ by Skibbereen Theatre Society, we appreciated the completed works as a welcome addition to this wonderful building including the paint refresh of the entire exterior. Redesign of The Square with new seating, planters and paving was also completed as part of this project.
A request has been made to West Cork MD of Cork County Council for a sign denoting this location of significant heritage as The Square. Hmmm. We haven’t had any update on this request so adding to our ‘to do’ list to follow up and make contact.
Readers may wish to know that we are in regular touch with the developer, requesting remedial works for the damaged hoarding and mural in front of the former Convent building and chapel.
Green Spaces and Landscaping
Communities should demonstrate the following: The planning, design and management of green spaces. The selection and appropriate siting of trees and their ongoing maintenance, including formative pruning, watering and attention to the stakes and ties. Presentation of landscaping of all entrances to your town/village/locality in consultation with your local authority, where appropriate. The use of suitable plants for hedges and shrubs for year round effect is important as is the siting of seasonal bedding schemes where you wish to highlight important areas. The use of plant containers can provide impact where it is not possible to plant directly into the ground. To reduce maintenance tasks limit the use of containers. To demonstrate the year round impact of the landscape works in your community, you are encouraged to provide dated photographs of, for example, daffodil schemes which are not evident in summertime.
Guidance for Green Spaces and Landscaping category of entry form, 2023
Visited by the adjudicator in 2022, the green space that is the Windmill Rock now has resurfaced pathways and ducting for public lighting. Funding was awarded under the Town and Village Renewal Scheme and West Cork MD leads the project’s continued development.
At the O’Donovan Rossa Memorial Park, a multi-year project, we installed two composite picnic benches, generously sponsored by Fields SuperValu and Spearline to live up to the park’s designation by the Southern Star as one of ‘five great West Cork picnic locations’. The circular concrete bases were funded by Cork County Council Community Activity Fund 2022 and offer further opportunity for park visitors to enjoy this green space.
In 2022 the adjudicator suggested replacing the white stone chips at the birch tree beds with bark mulch. This work along with planting of periwinkle (vinca minor) for further ground cover was completed by a Cork County Council contractor (thank you all). Recent replenishment of the central beds by the team at Deelish Garden Centre involved more weeding and planting pollinator friendly varieties (Geum ‘fiery tempest’ and ‘scarlet tempest’, Geranium ‘Rozanne’, Nepeta ‘purrsian blue’). This project that also relates to the biodiversity category is funded by Cork County Council’s Community Contract Fund.
Weeding the paved and planted areas is an ongoing maintenance challenge that we endeavour to keep on top of during the summer months with nothing but elbow grease, salt and vinegar.
Nature and Biodiversity in your Locality
Show your understanding and awareness of nature and biodiversity in your locality. This may include protected areas and/or areas important for conservation e.g. waterways, field boundaries, coastal features etc.
Show an appreciation of how your local species and habitats should be best managed and protected. Evidence of co-operation with expert groups and relevant authorities, especially in carrying out work in sensitive areas is desirable.
Guidance for Nature and Biodiversity category of entry form, 2023
Following many years of anti-social behaviour including but not limited to littering, the wooden shelter at the Community Orchard was removed and the materials stored for future reuse. During Social Placement week in April, two Transition Year (TY) students from Skibbereen Community School (SCS) visited the site and collaborated to create a suitable design for the future benefit of the community. You can read more about their design here and it is wonderful to see the Community Orchard being enjoyed by the community, as it was intended. It not only produces a variety of apples in the autumn, it is also a wonderful location to observe wildlife in the Caol stream that flows into the Ilen river.
The work undertaken by the Ilen River Nature Matters group goes from strength to strength and we are delighted to support and help communicate their important work. Exciting new projects in the last judging year include regular wildlife articles published in the Southern Star; Cois Caol Nature Hunt for children of Yellow House Montessori school at the Community Orchard; Hedgehog survey at selected locations using recycled election posters; Regular Ilen River water monitoring events at various locations throughout the year supported by FreshWater Watch (‘Investigating the health of global freshwater ecosystems’); Recording data for the Citizen Science Stream Index (CSSI). Phew – that’s a lot of work, well done Ann and team, keep up the good work.
That’s enough to digest for now. Do watch out for part 2 of this newsletter that focuses on the remaining four categories of the competition.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our supporters who have helped us continue our work again this year. Whether you donated time, skills or money, whether individual, charitable, community, corporate or public service, however you helped, we very much appreciate it all.
Until then, best wishes from the committee of Skibbereen Tidy Towns.
Featured image courtesy of Pixabay
Skibbereen Tidy Towns 