With 380 points, Lismore in Co. Waterford has scooped its 22nd Gold medal in the annual TidyTowns awards, retaining its position as second in the county with an 11-point increase on last year’s results. The west Waterford town won the overall award 20 years ago, and this year was particularly commended for the ‘beautiful moss-covered fountain’ near the castle, the attractive shopfronts and high-quality signage throughout.
The judges lamented the (inevitable and all-too-common) vacant buildings in the town, but celebrated that CPO orders had been placed on most. They complimented the grotto area, describing it as ‘gorgeous’ and the bicycle planter to the memory of Dervla Murphy was also commended as ‘a fitting tribute to this amazing woman’.
High praise was heaped upon the Millennium Park, although a small amount of litter was found on what was a sunny and quite busy day. The group were commended for their sustainability efforts, like the public drinking water tap, a solar-powered phone charger and the rainwater harvesting tanks in Blackwater Community School. The bottle bank was ‘one of the most attractive’ ever seen by the judges, it being being concealed behind a wall with holes for the bottles. The judges described the vista, as one comes across the bridge, as ‘one of the most breathtaking in Waterford, if not the whole of Ireland’.
Full story in this week’s Print & Digital Edition
