Members of the Clonmellon Market Square Committee on their clean-up day on Thursday of last week, from left, Peadar Manning, Brian Duffy, Ethna Fitzsimons and Peter Lynam.

Pride of Place judges in Westmeath today and tomorrow

The Pride of Place judges are in Westmeath today and tomorrow to assess work carried out be the three groups the council has nominated to represent the county this year.

The groups are:

Mullingar Tidy Towns under the over 5,000 population category

Clonmellon Tidy Towns in the 300-1,000 population category

Grange Housing Estate in the Housing Estate category.

The timetable for the judging is:

Thursday 8 Sept at 9.30am in Grange Community Centre

Thursday 8 Sept at 2.30pm in St John's Church, Clonmellon

Friday 9 Sept at 9.30am at Columb Barracks Great Hall, Mullingar.

The All Island Pride of Place Competition is a prestigious event and Westmeath has had success in the past.

A spokesperson for the council said: “Westmeath have been hugely successful this year and won several highly sought after accolades, and we hope to continue this trend.

“The groups concerned have been working really hard over the last two to three months preparing for the judges’ visits and any and all supports you can give to them would be much appreciated.

Westmeath has returned home on many occasions with placed entries and indeed with overall winning entries and we would like to invite you all to join us on the judging day to support our entries.”

Last Wednesday morning the Clonmellon Market Square Committee gathered to work to clean up for the Pride of Place judging.

The railing and gates were power-washed and now they have to be repaired, which is a major job.

The Market Square Committee wish Clonmellon great results on judging day!

Clonmellon Tidy Towns

A big thank you to Marie Henry and Martina Ashe for all their work in looking after the flowerbeds on the Delvin road and for planting new flowers at St John’s Church. The clean-up in Killua Cemetery is ongoing as you can see we have made great progress. Thank you to Sam for all his help with this project.

The Men’s Shed are active and we have to thank them for the lovely plant holders that they have made for Tidy Towns. As you know we are in the Pride of Place and the judges will be here Thursday, September 8, at 2pm, so if you can spare an hour or even half hour to do a bit of work, litter picking on the streets, watering the flowers, it would be appreciated. We have a great committee and we know that we are all proud of our village, as we should be.

A huge thank-you to John Wilson for all the hard work and long hours he has put into Tidy Towns for years throughout all seasons. He has worked tirelessly for the village no matter what the weather brings. Without John our achievements to date would not be possible.