Tidy Towns title delight for Trim
Trim is Meath’s tidiest town having won the county award in the National Tidy Town’s competition for the second year in a row.
Trim also won a Gold Medal in the national event and looks set for glory on the national stage within the next few years as it is just six points behind overall winners, Glasslough, Co Monaghan.
Moynalty, former national winners who won the county award 22 years in a row, won a silver medal and was highly commended, while Athboy won a bronze award and was commended.
Trim Tidy Towns volunteer, Noel Rochford was highly commended in the Community Heroes category.
Bettystown won the County Endeavor Award for increasing its marks by 6.4per cent on last year.
Dunboyne Tidy Towns won an a local authority pollinator award in the large town category and Duleek Tidy Towns won a Gum litter Task force Award in the village and small town category
Trim scored 340 points, three ahead of Moynalty, while Athboy increased its showing to 326 marks, up nine on last year.
Brian Heffernan of Trim Tidy Towns said they were pleased to have gained an additional six points in the competition.
“Some of our competition increased their marks more than we did, so we hope next year to make it up again,” he said.
“We are already making plans for next year’s projects.”
He said volunteer, Noel Rochford, deserved massive congratulations on his community hero award and said overall, it had been a good year for Meath.
‘Moynalty and Athboy have also done very well and there are a lot of Meath towns now achieving very high marks such as Julianstown, Batterstown and Enfield and quite a few are knocking on the door of bronze awards next year.
“Trim Tidy Towns wants to thank Trim Municipal Area Council, Tony Conlon, Maura Daly and Daragh McGowan and all the outdoor staff as well as all the volunteer groups.
“We also want to congratulate Prosper Meath, Trim’s Family Resource Centre who were winners at the Pride of place Awards.
“It has been a good day for Meath and Bernadine Carry of Meath County Council deserves an awful lot of credit for this,” he said.
Peter Rogers of Moynalty Tidy Towns said they were delighted to have gained four points.
“It is good to keep the flag flying. Competition is fierce so it is always good to be invited to the awards ceremony.”
Cllr Sarah Reilly who travelled to the awards ceremony in the Helix in Dublin on Monday said; “Meath did fantastically well in the 2019 Tidy Town Awards. I was particularly delighted to see Athboy jump nine points into bronze position. Trim and Moynalty always do exceptionally well and this year was no different.”
Duleek Revival Programme won a Gum Litter Taskforce (GLT) award . GLT has sponsored a category award in the national TidyTowns competition as part of an ongoing awareness campaign aimed at highlighting the issue of littered gum amongst the public.