Minister Michael Ring making presentation to Westport Tidy Towns today. Image from Michael Ring Twitter page

Westport named Ireland’s Tidiest Large Town

WESTPORT was named Ireland’s Tidiest Large Town at the SuperValu Tidy Towns competition national awards ceremony at The Helix in Dublin today.

Westport was one of the seven communities in Mayo which won a total of 13 awards.

At the awards ceremony, Minister Michael Ring announced that he has approved €1.4 million to be allocated to Tidy Towns groups around the country and he urged Mayo participants to avail of the funding.

As well as Westport’s national award, the following awards were presented to communities in Mayo:

 

County Awards

Winner, Westport

Highly Commended, Mulranny

Commended, Castlebar

Endeavou,r Lecanvey

 

Gold Medals

Westport

Castlebar

 

Bronze Medals

Mulranny

Belmullet

Ballina

 

Special Awards

Leave No Trace Award sponsored by Leave No Trace Ireland: Louisburgh Tidy Towns.

All-Ireland Pollinator Plan Small Town Category (North-West & West Region): Belmullet Tidy Towns.

Gaeltacht Award sponsored by The Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht

Highly Commended winner - Béal an Mhuirthead.

Speaking at today’s awards ceremony, Minister Ring said: “Mayo has outdone itself in the 2019 SuperValu Tidy Towns competition. It gave me great pride to present the 13 awards to the seven successful communities from the county.

It’s fantastic that so many communities in Mayo are competing and achieving success in this competition. It reflects a deep pride of place that communities in Mayo have in their local areas and was achieved with hard work and no small amount of community spirit.

Ultimately, all of the communities that compete in the competition are winners because their communities look better and people get great satisfaction and sense of camaraderie from taking part.”

Speaking in relation to Westport’s award as Ireland’s Tidiest Large Town, Minister Ring added: “This is a magnificent achievement for Westport, which beat some superb competition.

Westport has a particularly proud tradition in the competition, having won the overall award for Tidiest Town in Ireland three times, most recently in 2008. Today’s victory is based on hard work and endless commitment by the Committee, the local community and local businesses.”

Minister Ring's department will be writing to Tidy Towns committees in Mayo shortly to outline how they can avail of the funding announced today.