Tidy Towns improvements in Finglas and Ballymun

BOTH Ballymun and Finglas have improved their standing in the national Tidy Towns competition.

Judges visited the two areas and praised local Tidy Towns groups for helping to improve their neighbourhoods.

Local councillor Noeleen Reilly (IND) congratulated both Tidy Towns groups for their success.

“I know both Ballymun and Finglas were waiting anxiously given the huge amount of time their volunteers dedicated this year to make our communities a better place for us all to live in,” she said.

“It was fantastic to see that both increased their points to 297 and are now joint second in their overall category coming ahead of areas such as Castleknock, Balbriggan and Ballsbridge.

“As a member of Ballymun Tidy Towns we were really disappointed with the Irish Business Against Litter report in the summer which painted Ballymun as a litter blackspot. 

“We do not believe it reflected the true Ballymun nor the hundreds of hours volunteers put in to keep our area clean and tidy.

“We believe that the National Tidy Towns awards are a true reflection and while there is always areas to improve we are going in the right direction both in Ballymun and Finglas.”

Cllr Reilly said the reports on both areas identified a need for more volunteers to help the Tidy Towns committees.

“A small amount of people are putting in a huge effort each week and given the populations of both Ballymun and Finglas we should have a lot more people involved,” she continued.

“An hour a week or even a month can go a long way. This is something both groups will be hoping to improve on in the next year and we really hope the community can get behind us.”