Athlone achieves significant points increase in Tidy Towns

For the third year in a row, Athlone won a gold medal at this year's SuperValu national Tidy Towns awards ceremony, an achievement which has been lauded by Chairperson of Athlone Tidy Towns Gerry Johnson as “fantastic.”

Pointing out that Athlone achieved an overall points score of 361 in this year's competition, which is a jump of 14 from last year, Gerry Johnson said the town is “improving incrementally” every year, but he conceded that it is “an ongoing struggle” to reach the top and win the overall Tidy Towns award as the “competition is very intense.”

Athlone was just 15 points behind Abbeyleix, which claimed the coveted title of Ireland's tidiest town.

“We are building year on year and we have already acted on many of the recommendations made by the adjudicator in last year's report, but everyone has to play their part in keeping Athlone clean if we are to keep seeing improvements,” he said.

As well as winning a Gold medal for the third year running, Athlone also received a County Commendation award, which Gerry Johnson said was “a nice bonus.”

The local Chairperson paid tribute to the many volunteers in residential area and sporting organisations that “quietly carry out clean-ups and planting” to improve the attractiveness of the town. He also thanked the local business community and acknowledged the support of both the staff and elected members of Athlone-Moate Municipal District, Westmeath County Council and the Probation Service, who help out the Tidy Towns “when required.”

Gerry Johnson says Athlone is “edging closer to joining the top contenders” for the overall prize, and has “huge potential and many attractive features and facilities” which make it a great place to live in, and to visit.

However, he expressed concerns about the lack of new members joining Tidy Towns, and said he would like to be in a position to “pass the baton on” to the younger generation.

“It would be a cause of concern to me, and to our members generally, that there are very few people coming along behind us to join Tidy Towns, and we would like to see something like a junior Tidy towns group being formed.

In this year's Adjudicators Report for Athlone, the 11 members of the core Tidy Towns group in were singled out for special praise for the way in which they drive a large number of projects forward year after year, with the adjudicators observing that it is “no easy task to stay motivated.”