It’s nice to be appreciated and that will be the over-arching feeling of the Castleisland Tidy Towns leaders and volunteers at a reading of the report by an adjudicator on a ‘first ever’ visit to the town on July 21st.
The first timer was impressed with so many aspects of the town and, in particular, one gets the impression that she / he appreciated and understood the effort which goes into even the slightest improvements wrought in a community like this.
A five point increase from last year’s 329 to the 2023 total of 334 was granted by the adjudicator and, between the lines of praise, the spaces were crammed with good advice resulting, I suppose, from the fresh eye.
While there was a healthy and helpful increase in the area of volunteerism on the street this year, I’m sure they won’t mind if I dedicate this report to Sheila Hannon, Mary Walsh and Terence McQuinn for their years of minding the Tidy Towns house since the early 1990s.
The following is the adjudicator’s take on the state of Castleisland and its environs on Friday, July 21st 2023.
Your Planning and Involvement / An Pobal – Pleanáil agus Rannpháirtíocht
Fáilte chuig Comórtas Na mBailte Slachtmhara Super Valu don bhliain 2023.
Táimid buíoch daoibh as ucht na hiontrála a chur chugainn agus guimíd gach rath ar bhúr gcuid oibre amach anseo.
Welcome Castleisland / Oileán Chiarraí to the 2023 SuperValu TidyTowns competition.
This was the adjudicator’s first ever visit to your busy market town. How great to see that you have had such a successful relationship with the Tidy Towns family and that your involvement in the National Competition has resulted in major changes in the town over the last 31 years.
As a committee you have eight active members which seems to be an increase in numbers from last year.
We wish you well with your proposed restructuring of the committee, the first action in your three-year plan.
This can be a great way to expand roles and get new eyes to look at old tasks. As you say this can also build inclusivity into your team including volunteers from new communities in the town.
Your 20 regular volunteers will we hope to be joined by new workers following the launch of your volunteer drive under the slogan of ‘give an hour for your town.’ Thank you for your completed and concise entry form including useful photographs.
Ensure however, that projects are not duplicated across categories, list them once in the most appropriate competition category only.
Your coloured town map was clear but had no projects marked and your Tidy Towns map with projects marked was not too clear.
Combine these for next year’s entry and try to mark a project for each category of the competition if you can for the adjudicator to visit on the day.
How great to hear that your group has had such success reaching out to the three primary and three post-primary schools in the town and that the works done were beneficial to both groups.
To ensure you gain the maximum marks in all the competition categories, ensure future planned projects for all categories are included in your town plan.
The vision you have to reach out to farmers in the wider hinterland of the town is applauded and we will talk more about the River Maine project, where particular effort was applied by your group this year, further in the report.
Streetscape and Public Places / Sráid-Dreach agus Áiteanna Poiblí
Castleisland is blessed with some lovely streetscapes with many vernacular buildings that combine to make an attractive market town.
Many of the town houses and colourful painted businesses are really well kept, keeping their traditional shopfronts well maintained, which all adds to the charm and character of the town.
The positive uptake on your Shopfront Enhancement Grant for the Main Street is clear to see.
Look to ensure upper floors are as well looked after and remove obsolete clutter such as old signs or light fittings. We enjoyed a coffee in Eileen’s Bakery and thanks to the staff there for their attentive service and the smell of baking from Moloneys Cake Shop was very tempting.
Your food-booths are a great idea to being life out onto the streets in all weathers. We noted that there seems to be a number of new traders in the town including The Forge Store which is a fantastic reuse of an old building in such a prominent part of the town. Works seemed to be occurring at the old Department Store site whose somewhat scruffy gable beside McGillicuddy’s is so visually prominent for traffic entering the Main Street.
We wish them all the best of luck in their ventures. Remind owners to address their gables as well as their buildings frontage when carrying out painting or repair works.
The library is a real hub for the community. Remove the tree guards and tree grilles at the library car park as they have fulfilled their function in ensuring the establishment of the trees and
are now in danger of damaging leaning trunks. Re use elsewhere in the town if new street trees are planned.
Dead trees along Main Street should be replaced. Road markings especially at pedestrian crossings were poor in places and footpaths uneven. We see from your plan that you make a list every year of areas of footpaths that need attention.
Have you considered suggesting to the local authority a programme of lifting the setts to the central median of the Main Street to replace with planting. This would add green to the street, help screen parking and traffic, reduce hard surfaces to aid drainage and benefit the root zones of the existing Main Street trees.
Be sure to include the location of the new car park on the Limerick Road on the map for next year’s adjudicator.
We only caught a glimpse of the original Castle and wish you well with plans to stabilise this historic landmark.
Green Spaces and Landscaping / Spásanna Glasa agus Tírdhreachú
We accessed the River Walk at the Killarney Road by the interesting old stone water building, over the stone bridge, highlighted by your seasonal planting in the wall mounted troughs.
I’m sure you are aware that there are invasive plants to the banks here and be sure to inform your local authority as they will need to be considered in any imminent upgrade and enhancement of the riverwalk area. The play area at Barack Street was visited and was well used on the day although walking to the area was difficult with lots of traffic using the narrow bring over the Maine River and poor footpath connectivity back to the core of the town.
The town park mentioned was difficult to find and needs to be indicated clearly on your submission map for next year.
Will this be included as part of the riverside funding as its connectivity to the town could be improved though an accessibility audit and improved signposting for the visitor.
Your photo library included images of the school tree planting, so well done to all involved in this and we hope they are thriving after this wet summer. Look for opportunities to expand tree cover in the town, done as a phased basis with a few trees being planted every year to achieve an urban forest overall objective.
For example, could an avenue be established along the long approach to the town from the CastleIslands Desmonds GAA Club entrance to St. Johns Park in conjunction with the local landowner?
The street side planters add colour to the main street and look to include as many pollinator friendly plants in these important streetscape elements.
Nature and Biodiversity in your Locality / An Dúlra agus an Bhithéagsúlacht i do cheantar
Bat and swifts seem to be a focus for the group with nesting boxes and awareness talks having been adviced by your group.
Is there any indication that your works have aided these important town residents? Key to this category is knowing what habitats exist in your area and where they are. A habitat survey is a very important step that should be taken as soon as possible and your biodiversity officer could help your group with this task.
Look to create ecological corridors through the town and the riverside walk is a key to this.
Rivers, streams, lakes and freshwater habitats are among the most important and probably the most sensitive of habitat types in any area.
We note you hope to plant native hedging on the riverside walk but be careful in clearing areas of important native plants such as nettles. They are so important for our pollinators and if they do not impeded access they should be left in place.
Again, make sure your Biodiversity officer has a key role in overseeing you works to the river. Keep up the biodiversity friendly grass mowing regimes and the All Ireland pollinator plan has lots of advice on the best practice to ensure mowing for all grass areas in the town, verges, sports grounds, church grounds etc is done to the benefit of our pollinators.
Tidiness and Litter Control / Slachtmhaireacht agus Rialú Bruscair:
On our walk through the town, bins were generally clean and emptied.
We noted the efforts to tackle dog fouling with signage and bags provided along the river walk. The dog yoga signs at Cahereen Heights raised a smile also.
Again, your school pupils are taking a leading role in this issue with their painting of ESB boxes and sign poles.
We hope to see the solar powered bins for next year. Thank you to the many individuals doing regular litter picks along the walkways in the town. It may be effective to formalise this with regular litter patrols to ensure no areas of the town are missing out. Look to the areas covered by the adopt a road initiative and map this out in the town to ensure even coverage.
Your strategy of approaching local business to encourage them to address tidiness around their
premises and adopt a planter we hope is well received.
Some sweeping at the kerb edge outside hostelries could be encouraged to deal with discarded litter butts in particular.
Sustainability – Doing more with less / Inmharthanacht – Mórán ar an mbeagán:
The reuse of the bank building for upcycling is fantastic to see and the chair/planters made for eye-catching if unusual entrance features to the Kingdom Revamp Store.
Congratulations to Castleisland Community College on their fourth flag and St. Joseph’s Secondary School on their second flag and Muire Gan Smál for their eighth flag.
The images of the shirt recycling project were noted. The pupils involved in all these endeavours and their teachers are a credit to the town.
The Tidy Towns group involvement in the Fahaduff and Upper Maine catchment programme is such a great example of various groups in the town and its hinterland working together for the locality’s overall benefit.
Well done to all involved in this inclusive project especially the 30 or so farmers who availed of the 4,000 native trees to plant on their land to stabilise the river backs and prevent erosion in addition to enhancing riverside habitats.
It was a wonderful project to read about and has gained you extra marks in this category. Thanks to the Forge Cafe for putting a spotlight on local producers and we wish you luck with your plans to reduce the use of disposable coffee cups in the town.
Tidiness and Litter Control / Slachtmhaireacht agus Rialú Bruscai
On our walk through the town, bins were generally clean and emptied.
We noted the efforts to tackle dog fouling with signage and bags provided along the river walk. The dog yoga signs at Cahereen Heights raised a smile also.
Again, your school pupils are taking a leading role in this issue with their painting of ESB boxes and sign poles. We hope to see the solar powered bins for next year. Thank you to the many individuals doing regular litter picks along the walkways in the town. It may be effective to formalise this with regular litter patrols to ensure no areas of the town are missing out. Look to the areas covered by the adopt a road incentive and map this out in the town to ensure even coverage. Your strategy of approaching local business to encourage them to address tidiness around their premises and adopt a planter we hope is well received.
Some sweeping at the kerbs outside hostelries could be encouraged to deal with discarded litter butts in particular.
Residential Streets and Housing Areas / Sráideanna Cónaithe agus Ceantair Tithíochta
Some colourful examples of town houses were noted on our walk through the town.
Trees are maturing nicely at the open spaces at the well looked after Cahereen Heights housing estate. Are there many residents’ groups established in housing developments in Castleisland – old and new?
We felt that many open spaces could benefit from more tree planting. We hope the leaflet your committee issued included Tips for Residential Areas was well received.
Is there scope to run a Best Kept Garden or Best Kept Estate Competition in CastleIsland?
Approach Roads, Streets and Lanes / Bóithre Isteach, Sráideanna agus Lánaí
Ensure that all entry points to the town have a name sign and that any overgrowing of hedges are kept trimmed to ensure all of your town signs are visible.
The layered approach to verge mowing was seen on verges. Some roadside boundary walls would benefit from a power wash. Where road signs are located under trees, algae can grow on them, and they usually need more regular washing. The three seats removed from the main street will we are sure be very much used on the river walk. Are they to be replaced along the main street? Older people particularly like using street furniture to take a rest and to relax and it can reduce social isolation when people of all ages and abilities feel comfortable out walking in the town core. The food-booths may not be easy to access for older
residents.
Concluding Remarks
As a first-time visitor I was impressed with the work your group has carried out and the plans for future projects.
We thank all the numerous stakeholders and local residents involved in the works which make up this year’s submission and continued good luck for all your planned work in 2024 and beyond. We very much enjoyed our time in your market town.
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