REPORT:

The National Tidy Towns competition is an annual competition organised by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government with the support of the main sponsor SuperValu and many other agencies.

The competition involves participating areas being rated on all aspects of their local environment and prizes awarded to the best under many different categories. The overall winner is "Ireland's Tidiest Town". which is announced at a national ceremony in September each year. The competition is a postive community development with all agencies in area working together towards a common goal of improving their area.  The progress of an area is monitored and detailed feedback provided . Register here for the latest TidyTowns pack .

In South Dublin County, there is one applicant  in the competition - Lucan. In order to generate interest in the concept and encourage citizens, businesses and groups to get involved,the Council has arranged for a public meeting to be held in Tallaght Stadium on Thursday 16th February at 7.30pm. The public can reserve a place online .  Speakers will include an adjudicator from Tidy Towns, a Public Realm Designer, a representative from Lucan Tidy Towns and a representative from Dublin Waste . Many organistions will be present including South Dublin County Volunteer Centre, An Taisce's Green Homes  and  Clondalkin Community Recycling Initiative CCRI. In addition the Council will have information available on the many supports available to the public including information on community clean up supports which are now processed through the Social Credits System, information on cleansing and operations, recycling and waste minimisation information. The Tidy Town programme affords all the agencies and residents the opportunity to work together towards creating a good place to live and this may be used to prioritise work undertaken by the Council in areas invovled in |Tidy Towns. The Echo newspaper group have given their support to the project and will report on progress on a weekly basis.