Our junior Tidy Towns volunteers who are also volunteers for People helping People, a group of great young people, did a fantastic job revitalising St. Peter’s Square on Saturday 18th September
The flowering of the town, both in communal areas and for local businesses committed to flowering their own premises, requires planning by our team from early April, with the ordering of the window boxes, the selection of flowers and plants, and the expertise of the nursery in tending to them to produce an explosion of colour at just the right time to provide the uplifting and dazzling colour transformation of the town in early June.
Unfortunately, in 2020, the Covid situation meant that, for the first time in 10 years, we were unable to carry out this beautiful transformation. For 2021, however, we made the decision to put the machinery in motion, and all of the flower displays are being implemented on June 1st. Our planting collaboration with the nursery will ensure that there will be a rainbow of colours in the town all the way to September!
We wanted to reach out to the community, and particularly youth, who were so negatively impacted by the pandemic. Working with the schools, we were able to help teachers and students to choose and implement projects, again with Tidy Towns providing advice, equipment and practical facilities. In the past few weeks we worked with a group of students from Selskar College on their Project where they made 2 wooden wheelbarrow planters constructed in Mr. Ryans class.
Selskar College Wheelbarrow Planters
Selskar College Wheelbarrow Planters
In a recent collaberation with IT Carlow, Wexford Campus, we provided advice and assistance to student Ilaria Berardi for her concept of an “Earth Bin” Installation. Her innovative creation was displayed on Wexford Quays to enormous interest, and within 2 hours, the “Earth Bin” had been filled with rubbish by passers-by.
Earth Bin – a concept by Ilaria Berardi
The Pandemic obviously presented challenges for the Tidy Towns group. A number of members were unavailable, as they were shielding. Projects where close teamwork was required were not feasible. Meetings could only be carried out over Zoom.
We concentrated on wider-area projects, where safe social distancing could be observed. For cleanups in areas such as Kaat’s strand and approach roads such as Carcur , individuals were allocated stretches of the targeted area, and each volunteer was responsible for their own section.
This all had a very unfortunate down-side to the social side of the group. The chat and banter while we worked was missing, and of course the ritual of the ‘tea-and-scones’ at the end of all the hard work had to be foregone. This loss cannot be overestimated – the dynamic of the group drives its morale and the shared sense of satisfaction of a job well done. The conversations also contributed hugely to suggestions of future projects, and reports of areas which were becoming in need of attention.
While we wait for normality to return, re-focusing is required. Within the group, each member volunteered to adopt an area where they would be responsible for regular litter-picks. Over social media we reached out to invite communities to organize clean-ups in their own neighbourhoods, with Tidy Towns providing the required equipment, and organizing the Council operatives to pick up the accumulated rubbish bags and sundry items.
Check out the posts on Wexford Tidy Towns Facebook Page to keep up with all the good things we’ve been getting up to!
– 25th June. We were at Farmleigh House today, as we were shortlisted for the Ireland’s Best Kept Town Awards – an all-island competition which sees the best towns in the TidyTowns competition compete against their counterparts in Northern Ireland’s Best Kept competition. We were delighted to finish runner-up in the Best Kept Large Urban Centre category. Congratulations to Bangor, County Down who pipped us to first place in the category, to Bantry Co. Cork who won the overall award, as well as the Best Kept Small Town category, and to all the other category winners and runners-up.
– 10th June. Thanks so much to the ten volunteers who did a great job on a Monday evening, weeding, planting and cleaning in 1798 Street and environs.
– 8th June. Grasscutting and clean-up at the Angel Garden, Ferrybank, before the “Life after Loss” Vigil.
– Flowering the town with Wexford In Bloom:
Wexford Tidy Towns volunteers continued their trojan efforts to keep Wexford clean and beautiful in the later Autumn and Winter months. Action Days and clean-ups saw lots of tasks tackled included planting around the town in areas such as Kennedy Park and Peters Square and four window boxes at the Wesleyan Church. Volunteers did lots of litter picking, sweeping and painting around the town. Wexford Tidy Towns even had a meeting with Santa in December in his new location on the Quays of Wexford! Check out the photos below to see some of the activities we got up to during these months. We just want to say thank you to all the Wexford Tidy Towns volunteers for helping keeping our beautiful town as litter free as possible.
Another big achievement for Wexford Tidy Towns group during this time was our trip to Tipperary on 20th November to collect our Silver Award and the Clean Air Award at the SuperValu South East Region Tidy Towns Awards having been awarded these at the National Tidy Town Awards in September. It was great to see all our hard work rewarded and we couldn’t have done it without everyone’s efforts. Have a read of the adjudicators report here.
Thank you to all those who helped us in any way in 2017 the volunteers who turned up for clean-ups, local residents who cleaned their own areas, businesses who maintained their premises or donated to our efforts, and every individual who cleans up after themselves. Remember to bin your litter and butts, pick up after your dog, report illegal dumping and we always need more Volunteers, so please join us and help us maintain our Silver Award and win Gold for Wexford in the future just get in touch or turn up at one of our clean-ups. Thanks for the continued support from the community and local businesses. Everyone can help keep Wexford clean and beautiful!
We had a wonderful Summer with Wexford Tidy Towns, lots of clean-ups and projects around the town were undertaken. Thanks to Wexford in Bloom the town looked blooming wonderful all Summer long and into the early Autumn months. The baskets and window boxes around the town looked amazing and brightened up the area for all the locals and visitors. Meanwhile our volunteers were hard at work weeding and maintaining some of the flower beds around the town. Also thanks to local retailers for the donation of flowers we really appreciate them so we can cover more areas.
Wexford Tidy Towns volunteers took part in several clean-ups during these months. We litter picked, swept, planted, weeded and tackled some Japanese Knotweed. We even got to try out some new cleaning machines that made some of these tasks easier. Volunteers were up in the Rocks in Maudlintown tackling knotweed and doing a general clean of the area collecting over 35 bags of rubbish and knotweed from that area. We were back along the Quays and Grogans road for more painting, sweeping, and litter picking and in Peters Square for some planting. We also got the lane ways and Ferrybank litter picked and tackled the field beside the Clinic in Grogans Road. See some photos of our hardworking Wexford Tidy Town Volunteers undertaking some of these tasks below. Thank you everyone who came out and joined us at our clean-ups, new volunteers are always welcome.
One local initiative we would like to highlight is the installation of book boxes by Wexford Little Free Library the first one is located at The Bullring and the second in Redmond Park with wonderful artwork on them done by local artists. The one in Redmond Park is dedicated to children’s books. So keep an eye out for these around the town bring along a book you would like to donate and take a different one. Check out their Facebook Page for future plans and locations of new boxes around Wexford.
The I.B.A.L. results (Irish Business Against Litter) for 2017 saw Wexford joint 26th out of 40 towns which was a drop in the rankings compared to last years results. We would encourage businesses and residents to look after their own places and hopefully we can climb back up the ranks again next year. Thanks to all those who are helping maintain the cleanliness in their own areas of town.
We were delighted to retain our silver medal in the National Tidy Towns Annual Awards in the Helix, Dublin on 25th September. This is thanks to our fantastic team of volunteers who help keep our town clean and beautiful. Check out the Adjudicators report here. We will continue to work towards the Gold Award and appreciate any support from local volunteers, residents and businesses.
Thank you to all those who helped us achieve this Silver Award. We always need more volunteers so get in touch to see how you can help or please join us at one of our clean-ups. Thank you for the continued support from the community and local businesses. Everyone can help keep Wexford clean and beautiful!