Midsummer newsletter part 2 of 2 – July 2023

This midsummer newsletter is part 2 of 2 for 2023 that summarises some highlights from the final 4 of 8 competition categories during the judging year that ran from June 2022 to May 2023. The 4 categories are: Sustainability – Doing more with less, Tidiness and Litter Control, Residential streets and housing areas, Approach roads, streets and lanes. To catch up on part 1 of the newsletter please click here. We hope you enjoy reading and do remember that all progress in the national competition is for the town of Skibbereen rather than Skibbereen Tidy Towns.

Sustainability – Doing more with less

_{Describe how your activities help to make your centre more sustainable and reduce your environmental impact. For example, consider how you use your resources (e.g. methods or materials you use), in your project work under one or more of the following key themes: sustainability, water, transport, waste, energy, and climate action. Describe awareness raising activities carried out across your community and detail any involvement with other Community Groups in this category.}

Guidance for Sustainability category of entry form, 2023

We were delighted to present the Skibbereen taking on Food Waste campaign as our featured project in this year’s entry. Supported by the Clean Technology Centre at MTU it has had considerable success in a little over a year with projects run by Skibbereen Tidy Towns, Cycle Sense and CECAS including:

• Food waste awareness events and social media campaigns including National Leftovers Day.
• Composting events hosted by CECAS and Cycle Sense and facilitated by Waste Down.
• Surveys comparing levels of household food waste in the general bin (supported by KWD)
• Engagement with local primary schools to create a Young Chef seasonal recipe booklet. Issue 1 is published, issue 2 (as Gaeilge) was compiled by TY students from SCS as part of their social placement and we look forward to its publication.
• A Food Waste training course from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was beta tested by TY students of SCS. Two lucky students were successful in the draw for a €100 gift card for Fields SuperValu.
• A talk to TY SCS students on avoiding food waste was well received and many included their learnings in their year end portfolio.

You can read more about these projects here: https://skibbereentidytowns.com/food-waste/

Another important project in the Sustainability category involves Net Zero Skibbereen, a small community group established in 2022, with an ambitious goal of making Skibbereen carbon neutral by 2040, and an interim goal of 50% reduction in emissions by 2030. Key deliverables in the judging year were as follows:

• An Energy Master Plan (EMP) was completed with energy surveys provided to selected businesses including the Skibbereen Residential Care Centre. The EMP provides a pathway for the years ahead and was officially launched on Earth Day, 22 April at the Ludgate Hub.
• Four awareness raising events for different audiences were hosted at the Uilinn (West Cork Arts Centre), Myross Wood House (by CECAS), Skibbereen public library and the Ludgate Hub. Participants were interested in information regarding SEAI grants for homes, as suggested by the 2022 adjudicator.

Keep up the good work Liam and team. For more information or to subscribe to their newsletter please contact netzeroskibb@gmail.com

Tidiness and Litter Control

Apart from those of us involved, it is often considered that Tidy Towns is all about litter and flowers. This is fair enough given the name, but remember that the Tidy Towns competition started over 60 years ago when terms such as biodiversity and sustainability were pretty much unheard of. Skibbereen entered the competition for the first time in 1961 and has a long tradition over the decades of striving to improve the town above and beyond litter control.

_{Tidiness: General lack of clutter, blocked footpaths, redundant poles, unsightly overhead electric cables, absence of graffiti and fly-posting and evidence of control of weed growth at kerbs. Absence of unsightly and or inappropriate advertising, such as that on gables of buildings and mass produced advertising banners in shop fronts. Please note that although general tidiness is evaluated and marked in this category, tidiness is also considered under other categories including the Streetscape & Public Places, Approach Roads, Streets & Lanes.}

_{Litter: The adjudicator will assess the absence of litter and dumping, evidence of litter control strategy, including regular litter patrols, segregation of collected litter during clean-ups and promotion of anti-litter awareness throughout community.}

Guidance for Tidiness and Litter Control category of entry form, 2023

Spring Clean Skibbereen is a recently launched community group, taking on litter picks along the roads leading to and from Skibbereen. On Easter Monday, the launch group picked almost 20 bags from the Marsh Road to Caheragh, a distance of 10 km. The group’s goal: “to get people out cleaning the roadways …. To get neighbours and friends walking and talking, making everyone more conscious of our environment and how lucky we are to live here.” This event was followed by another from Abbeystrewry N.S. to Tragumna. Keep up the great work Des and team. The more volunteers involved in litter picking the better.

We continue to support the work of OpenLitterMap, a community that identifies and tags litter that can be used with open access by anyone interested in supporting the battle against litter, subscribing to the theory that ‘what gets measured gets managed’. For the inaugural litter pick event by TY students from Skibbereen Community School in November 2022, we logged the litter to be collected along the designated route and in one particular blackspot area. The results may be viewed in the images below and in more detail using the Global Map for Skibbereen in 2022 here.

Residential Streets & Housing Areas

There is huge opportunity in this category for everyone who lives in a residential estate or street. Maintenance of gardens, green areas and children’s play areas are all referenced in the category handbook. By maintenance we don’t mean manicured lawns (see the biodiversity category) and the adjudicator has offered some practical examples as follows:

_{Residential streets that include Town Houses are integral parts of towns and villages and should be treated in a similar fashion to public and private housing developments. Consideration is given to proper presentation and maintenance of all properties with due cognisance given to maintenance of frontages, boundary and gable end walls. Gardens, where applicable, should be presented to a good standard. In housing developments green areas should be cut regularly. Children’s play areas to be considered with equipment maintained to best standards. Where possible individual estates should have suitable name signs – stones, plaques, sign posts, etc. preferably bilingual. Unfinished estates will not reflect badly on the efforts of any community but examples of how the community is addressing this issue should be highlighted.}

Guidance for Residential Streets and Housing Areas category of entry form, 2023

Following earlier success in 2019 with an extensive business and residential competition, we are keen to support a ‘Pride in our Residential Areas’ competition to encourage community amongst neighbours. We appreciate that residents often undertake this work quietly and under the radar so we were delighted when residents of The Orchard in Townshend Street shared photos from their recent community clean-up. Thank you all.

Approach Roads, Streets & Lanes

Following a suggestion by the adjudicator in the 2018 report, we set about collating the history of the unique lane names in the town as recorded by Skibbereen and District Historical Society. In the month of publication alone (February 2023) this blog post attracted the attention of over 300 unique visitors.

In case you missed part 1 of this newsletter here is the link: https://skibbereentidytowns.com/2023/07/10/midsummer-newsletter-part-1-of-2-july-2023/

With best wishes until next time, from the committee of Skibbereen Tidy Towns.

Featured image courtesy of Pixabay