Tidy Towns Report 2017

Hollyfort Development Group/Tidy Towns Report 2017

In November 2013, a public meeting was held to discuss the state of Hollyfort Village. Four years later, the village is stunningly attractive due to the huge amount of work carried out by this committee and its supporters. This report highlights events since November 2016.

Events

Hollyfort joined Craanford/ Monaseed community in the Young at Heart Xmas Party in December ’16. This was followed by our annual Christmas tree lighting with over 50 children attending. Unfortunately, our annual concert with Ballythomas School was cancelled due to bereavement.

      A Fun-run and family walk was held in March ’17 and was a success both in community and fund-raising terms. Our Summer Concert in July with the ‘Growlers’ and local talent was another successful community event, which raised funds for the village and local church. Three community events were supported for the first time by the Tidy Towns (1) an Easter Egg Hunt run by Anne Cooney (2) Hillbilly Horseshoe League when an All-village resident’s team entered and (3) Gap Arts Festival. The Gap Arts Festival held a Poetry Event with Paula Meehan, Ireland Professor of Poetry, in the Old School. New lampshades/bulbs were purchased and the venue was highly praised by the festival organisers. The workshop was followed the next day by a poetry reading in St. John’s church. Several people from the village took part in the workshop and their reading in the church was commended.

      A register of ‘Invasive Species Sites’ by the Bann River was initiated by Deborah Darcy in May and the register continues to be updated. An exhibition of photographs of Hollyfort’s heritage trees and Tree Council posters was held in the Old School and Heritage trees in the village were registered with The Tree Council, who will be visiting the sites this year. For Heritage week in August, a ‘Herbs and Wild Food’ talk was organised with Nicky Darrell and Alex Duffy, and was a most interesting event. In November, our annual Halloween Fancy Dress Party continued to be well supported as too was the Fundraiser 4-Griffin.

Planting, weeding and grass and hedge cutting continued throughout the year, which was particularly onerous due to lack of a Tus worker which, I’m pleased to say, we have now been allocated. Litter picking was ongoing and a litter survey was carried out on Ballintlea road. The open drain in the village was fitted with a grill by the council and, in May a new composting site was erected in the village.

Awards

Hollyfort won a Gold Standard Award in Nth Wexford 2k Clean 2017 and also €50 voucher in 'The Little Things that Matter' photo competition. Our entry was Highly Recommended in the ‘Access for All’ competition and awarded a grant of €1,000. We were also awarded €504 in the Community Facilities competition. This week, we were awarded €1,000 in celebration of 60 years of the Tidy Towns. We once again entered the Tidy Towns Competition and were awarded an extra 7 points. The adjudicator remarked, ‘Your committee is doing sterling work and we concur with last year’s adjudicator that your village has great potential in this competition.’

The committee regretted the resignation of the chairperson mid-term and we thank Pat Howard for his hard work and enthusiasm over the years. Thanks also to all the committee members who continued to take up the TT challenge and, with the help of numerous supporters, have made 2017 another successful year for the village.