Tidy Towns group 'appalled' at adjudication

Kilcullen tidy towns activists have described as 'appalling' the fact that only one extra mark was given to Kilcullen in the 2012 Tidy Towns Competition, writes Brian Byrne.

"It's the worst marking I have ever seen in all the years we have been in the competition," says Noel Clare of Kilcullen Community Action, whose main focus is the Tidy Towns work.

"Just one extra mark after all the work we have done in the past year is farcical, especially after the local reaction to what we have achieved in the Built Environment."

Noel noted that although the judges acknowledged that work, which included the Convent Wall project and other initiatives such as improving the aspect of derelict properties in the town, not one extra mark was given in that most important category in the report.

"The one mark extra we got was for Litter Control, and getting nothing more for all the other work is just so disheartening."

Longtime KCA member Orla O'Neill said the difference between this year and last year in terms of the convent wall, stone wall, derelict buildings painted, and the improvement at the entrance at Community Centre is 'exponential' and this should have been recognised by Tidy Towns. "Something is not right with this," she said.

The Diary will give a detailed account of the adjudication later.