COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, September 14, 2009

MOTION NO.4

MOTION: Councillor T. Delaney

That the Manager immediately reinstates the Beautiful South County Award scheme and to ask when the decision to cancel was made, why was it not relayed to councillors and how much did it cost in 2008.

REPORT:

The Beautiful South Dublin Competition has been running in the county since 2004.   It was previously the Tidy Districts Competition and, as with all such events, would have been reviewed many times and the direction of it changed.  In 2008 it attracted 120 entries, 137 in 2007 and 2006.  It has been a means of rewarding areas for their efforts in keeping their areas to a high standard.  It is an event that takes a considerable staff resource.  It involves the publicising of the competition, the contact with all local groups and local media as well as efforts by frontline staff across the organisation to encourage entries.    Moving into the adjudication framework the shortlisting judging absorbs two staff full-time for a four week period.  Each area / site is visited and a set of criteria to award scores.  That judging panel then write up detailed comments to ensure that the people involved will get some value from the process.  There is then a final judging which engages two staff full-time for a further week.

The prizegiving night itself costs €17,674 and involves a local venue, refreshments, prize money, etc.  In the current economic climate it was considered that while the event might be valuable it does not in an overall context change the behaviour of citizens towards really altering the face of estates.  It also has not attracted entrires from areas where in fact the need for such change has been the greatest.  The decision to not proceed with the competition was made as part of the 2009 budget process in November of 2008 and Members were notified as part of that process.  The decision was in the context of focussing resources where the need is greatest and the commitment of the Council has been to attempt to maintain front-line services therefore dedicating the resources towards those services as well as working in a different way with Residents Associations from areas where the benefit is greater is a more cost effective means of maintaining a positive image of estates for people who live there.  Work has already commenced on an approach which explores the generation of social credits for those who engage in a positive way with their environment and this approach should yield a wider response than the Beautiful South Dublin Competition.  In particular when we look at the results which came from the installation of the Reverse Vending Machines in Killinarden and St. Aidens where young people actively removed all plastic bottles and cans from the surrounding areas to gain points for prizes and this is a more useful use of the resources.