The National Tidy Towns competition is back after being cancelled in 2020 – for the first time in 60 years – due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The competition’s return for 2021 will see a few tweaks to ensure safety of participants and judges.
More than 800 Tidy Towns groups have been given a special grant of up to €1,000 to support their efforts, and they will be asked to submit an electronic entry, with a new prize category to recognise the role played by volunteers during the Covid pandemic.
There will also be a special award for young people in line with the Government strategy Our Rural Future.
Minister for Rural and Community Development Heather Humphreys on Friday announced the return of the competition, which is sponsored by SuperValu supermarkets.
The 2021 competition will take place in the same format as previous years, albeit with a specific emphasis on electronic entry and remote adjudication of each town’s entry, the organisers said. Overall winners announced before the end of the year.
The organisers said groups should continue to adhere to public health guidelines, and it has been acknowledged the pandemic might have impacted on volunteers’ ability to deliver on all of their plans. It was for this reason a new award category was aimed at groups that have continued to serve and look after their communities despite the difficulties posed by Covid-19, Ms Humphreys said.
She announced a €1 million fund in December to support the Tidy Towns groups, and on Friday she confirmed that more than 800 TidyTowns Groups have now been awarded grants of up to €1,000 under this fund
Ian Allen, managing director of SuperValu noted that 2021 marks 30 years of SuperValu’s continuous support and sponsorship of the competition.
“As one of the longest-running community and sustainability initiatives in Ireland, TidyTowns is an incredibly important programme that all of us at SuperValu are immensely proud to be a part of.” he said.
Details of the 2021 competition and access to resources are available at tidytowns.ie.
