Behind the News: Tidy Towner, Kathleen Collins of Ballybunion

Kathleen Collins has been involved with the Tidy Towns committee in Ballybunion, since she retired to the Co Kerry seaside town, four years ago. “It’s great being part of a group of people committed to their community, but it’s hard work fulfilling all the categories of the adjudicators,” she says.

For many people, Tidy Towns are synonymous with flower baskets and litter- free streets but the competition, which attracts about 700 entrants each year, has branched out in the past few years. It now includes awards for waste prevention, climate change, biodiversity, heritage and sustainable development.

A number of Tidy Towns committees have come together under the banner of Friends of Tidy Towns to meet adjudicators to find out what towns have to do to gain these new awards.

Collins was one of the volunteers who partook in a recent meeting seeking clarity about the judging of Tidy Towns. “We need to know what each of these awards mean and what we have to do to strive to win them,” she says.

“For example, there’s a big emphasis now on waste management and working with different elements of the community.”

In Ballybunion, the Tidy Towns committee works with schools and community groups to broaden the focus on their work. “We are always trying to build on the tourism aspects of the town and being part of the Wild Atlantic Way has been very helpful for us.”

One of the issues raised by the Friends of Tidy Towns was that judging in June and July is too early. “As a seaside town, flowers bloom later in the season and they often aren’t flourishing when the judges come around,” Collins says. “The reason for forming the group is to find ways of sharing our experiences of tidy towns and meeting the judges to understand the process better – not to criticise and complain.”

Environmental consultant Billy Flynn is a Tidy Towns judges and he is keen to stress that the competition is not just based on how places look at the time the judges see them.

“The Tidy Towns competition is very much an environmental competition now and sustainability is at its core. We’re asking people to think outside the box and examine what resources they are using – fuel, water, transport and even time. We are hugely aware of the amount of time spent by volunteers in this competition.”

Flynn adds: “We don’t look critically at floral displays and planting as much as people might think we do – especially if you think that some of the flowers have been transported long distances to look beautiful for a couple of months.

“We’re asking people to think beyond floral displays to things like traffic management, speed limits and even signage.”