It's an ill wind . . . The foot-and-mouth crisis which resulted in the national census being postponed meant that Westport could still enter this year's Tidy Towns competition in the "small town" category. It was named yesterday as the overall national winner.
Small towns are classified as those with populations of fewer than 5,000, but as the chairwoman of the local Tidy Towns committee, Ms Bridie Moran, said, Westport's population has grown and is now in excess of that. "We are in the `under-5,000' category, but I think our population is over 5,000 at the moment. However, due to the census being cancelled we can't go into the higher category until the next census is taken," she said.
The census was due on April 29th, but was put off for a year.
Speaking at a reception in Dublin Castle after the awards were announced, Ms Moran described the win as unbelievable and totally unexpected. She put the success down to the voluntary efforts of people picking up litter and to everybody in the town working together.
"Every day of the week we are out picking up litter. We purchased 200 litter-pickers last year for our volunteers at a cost of £1,800, and it has paid off," she said.
The chairwoman of Westport UDC, Ms Margaret Adams, said the local authority's strong policy on signage also helped. "People would say we have very strenuous planning controls, but I think it has paid off. We insist on traditional shop fronts with no plastic signage."
She had been worried that the town would not do as well as it did. "At present we have a major sewerage scheme going on and we thought we had no hope of winning it this year until that was over, and we were more than surprised today to win," she said.
The award for Ireland's tidiest large town went to Ennis. Mr Donal Griffin, chairman of the Ennis committee, said the town had worked very hard over 18 years for the award.
The town had a strategic plan to improve its appearance which was reviewed annually, and objectives were set for the following year. This and a partnership approach, with all residents and local bodies working together, had won the prize for the town, he said.
Ms Margaret Neylon, secretary to the committee, said Ennis was also subjected to a type of "colour me beautiful" assessment, and key buildings were then painted in colours to "light up" certain streets.
Ireland's tidiest village, Castletown in Co Laois, was just one point behind the national winners. Mr Sean Fleming, chairman of the local committee, and a TD for the area, said the committee was very happy with the result but would like to have "gone one better".
"We are in the top two in Ireland and we'd have loved to have been the outright winner, but that will be next year's job," he said.
"We have people picking up litter every day, but after 16 years in the competition it's part of the culture of the village not to cause litter.
"Children don't throw litter on the streets in Castletown, and it's not that they are being told not to do it. They just know it's not the thing to do," he said.