Letterkenny Tidy Towns launches website

All the president’s men. The Letterkenny grass cutting team working at Sentry Hill with supervisor John McCandless in advance of a planned visit by President Michael D. Higgins in honour of the town winning the National Tidy Towns award. Included from left are, Michael Wagnerowski, James Gallagher, Raymond Russell, Cathal McGroarty, Ben McGranaghan and John McCandless.

LETTERKENNY Tidy Towns is publicly launching its new website today, Thursday, and a new competition to coincide with the start of National Spring Clean which resumes this week.

The competition called – ‘Keep it Local. Keep it Beautiful’ encourages people to pick up a few items of litter while out enjoying their normal daily walk.

Whether you pick up a couple of cans or do a full scale neighbourhood litter pick, it all makes a big difference. Just be sure to keep to social distancing guidelines.

Mr Gerard McCormick, Magees Chemist, is joint Chair of the Tidy Towns Committee alongside his brother Brian.

“Because of the Covid crisis we have had to abandon our normal Cleaner Community Campaign which involves competitions for best kept businesses and best kept gardens but we hope with this website and our Facebook page we can reach out to the people of Letterkenny and keep Tidy Towns to the forefront of life in Letterkenny.

“We also hope to run the Best Kept Large Garden, Small Garden and Wildlife Garden competitions on-line this year through the website and Facebook platforms by asking the public to submit photos of their gardens,” Mr McCormick said.

Five years have passed since Letterkenny claimed the ultimate title of Ireland’s Tidiest Town in 2015. That success was down to the dedication and commitment of a small body of people who, over many years previously, had set about transforming Letterkenny from a town that had all too consistently fallen below the standards set by the National Tidy Towns competition.

Led by the late Jim McCormick and, more recently, Anne McGowan the local Tidy Towns Committee has helped to help make Letterkenny a better town to live in and to enjoy.

“We have been really lucky to have two new Tidy Towns members, Morag Kelly and Robert Queen who have worked really hard on the new site,” Mr McCormick said.

As an added incentive, they are offering a 100 euro ShopLK voucher (sponsored by Magess Pharmacy) for the photo which best showcases the beauty of their local area kin the ‘Keep it Local. Keep it Beautiful’ competition. That could be a view, animals, people you love, a building or a piece of outdoor artwork.

“Once you have taken your photo, just post it on our Facebook page or email to lktidy@gmail.com and include a short description of the photo, your name and contact phone number in the email. The competition will run from June 11th to July 5^th,” he said.

Meanwhile, national Spring Clean 2020, the anti-litter campaign which normally takes place during April, has resumed. If you would like to make a contribution to keeping your area beautiful, you can get grabbers, bags and gloves by contacting Gerard or Eileen in Magees Pharmacy on (074) 9121409. Or you can just pick up a few items as you spot them and place them in your own bin.

As of phase 2 of the Government’s roadmap to easing the Covid-19 restrictions, the official advice from the National Spring Clean campaign is to maintain social distance, stay in small groups, use your own gloves, and don’t share your litter picker if you’re using one and do not collect any discarded PPE or tissue paper

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