With the results of the Tidy Towns competition due out on Monday, IvaPocock looks at how the judges go about their task
Judging the Tidy Towns competition is not a simple matter of inviting entrants into a ring before a panel of judges on a particular day of the year. It involves visiting 700 towns and villages over a two-month period.
But after more than 40 years, the adjudication process is a "well-honed system", according to Mr Pat Macken of the Department of the Environment, which has overall responsibility for the competition.
Key to this system is the anonymity of the adjudicators, in particular the six members of the national panel. Not even the sponsors of the competition, Supervalu, know their names.
The names of the adjudicators who are appointed by the regional tourism authorities, and who do the bulk of the initial judging, are not quite as closely guarded, although most of them try to keep a low profile when they are going about their task.
"I put on the old clothes, take a packed lunch and don't talk to anyone," says one veteran Tidy Towns adjudicator, Mr Eamon de Stafort, of Shannon Development.
He is one of the 30 or so adjudicators who visit competing communities in the first round of judging, starting in mid-June each year.
"The bottom-line principle of the Tidy Towns adjudication is that nowhere is judged by a local person," says Mr Joe Palmer, chief executive of South East Tourism.
But judges are allowed to work in their own general regions: for example, someone from Waterford can judge in Carlow. No community is judged by the same person more than two years in a row. And everyone involved in judging who spoke to The Irish Times this week was at pains to emphasise that the adjudication is as independent, fair and objective as possible.
When asked if he had ever been lobbied, one adjudicator admitted he received "the odd phone call from a certain TD asking 'Were we judged yet?', but the TD doesn't get any info. If he did the competition wouldn't survive".
A long-standing national judge says he has never been lobbied because "the majority of communities enter in the real spirit. Only two or three cases whinge or complain".
The adjudication criteria, like the competition, have changed over the years. "Things we'd be praising 20 years ago would be nearly heresy now," says Mr de Stafort. "There was maybe an overemphasis on tightly cut lawns, whereas now we encourage wildlife."
THERE are now six adjudication criteria: overall development approach; the built environment, landscaping and the wildlife; litter control and tidiness; residential areas; roads, streets and back areas; and general impression.
Every entrant receives a report from their community's adjudicator, dealing with each of these criteria.
One of the national panel, who must remain nameless, says: "The report writing's a slog, trying to be fair while hoping they'd do better".
Another veteran judge says: "The reports have got much more thorough as they are read much more assidiously."
When entering the competition, towns and villages are asked to indicate the dates of any festivals or special events, so that they don't end up being judged when the place is looking as rough as the residents may be feeling.
The communities which do best in the first round - approximately the top 20 per cent of entrants - are then visited a second time, this time by a member of the national judging panel.
There is no formal recruitment process for the role of national adjudicator, but the need for it hasn't arisen in recent years, according to Mr Macken.
Nobody ever questions it, to tell you the truth," says Mr de Stafort.
The current panel is two women, both with planning expertise, and four men. Two of the men are architects, the third has landscaping expertise and the fourth has a "general cultural background", according to Mr Macken.
A couple of experienced adjudicators remember some bizarre experiences over the years.
One man remembers a time when he got a call two weeks after he had been out working from a former garda working as a detective, who was able to itemise all his movements.
The detective was working for a solicitor who thought that his client was being trailed - by the Tidy Towns judge.