Welcome to the TidyTowns Programme for 2009 and thank you for the Completed Entry Form together with annotated map, details of your walking trails and photographs. The report on Accessibility Works was also of interest. A town of steep hills and in the case of Vinegar, historic hills as well. The central square bounded by the Town Hall was reminiscent of a continental town concourse and was delightfully busy and bustling on the day of adjudication. The bilingual street signs are excellent. Sadly the castle is now closed for renovations.
Hopefully it will be available again soon. Traffic volumes around the bridge and roundabout area are very high and intrusive. The decision to pedestrianise the hill is welcomed as are the new parking areas over looking the Slaney and within the new shopping centre. The latter using the fine old mill for this purpose. The former had a number of large planters still awaiting soil and flowers. The parking bays on the Railway Square have helped the neat presentation of this area as have the new flower beds to the railway wall. The work done on the Promenade which is also in part pedestrianised adds a delightful new amenity to the central town area.
Enniscorthy has a number of fine public buildings, historic, civil and ecclesiastical, which are being well presented and used in a manner appropriate to present day requirements. The new Saint John’s Community Hospital is a splendid building. Are there plans for the former building, which appeared to be vacated? The Garda Station and library nearby continue to be suitably neat and orderly. The 1798 Centre looked well but was flying just one flag on its available polls. The flying of flags is one of the least expensive enhancements one can recommend, bringing colour and movement to the scene in an instance.
The cathedral is a fine building in a suitable setting, well set off by the grassed area to its foreground. The small scale mural on the Auction Rooms gable end caught the eye as did the colourful Mill Street Fish Shop and Cedarwood Kitchens. The much improved wall at Bellfield GAA Complex was admired but do finish the task by putting to rights the entrance area to the extreme right. It appears that the very tall old mill at the New Ross road is in course of demolition.
The major work in progress on the Fair Green was noted. We look forward to viewing the improvements in due course with eager anticipation. The picnic area on Mill Road and the Slaney Viewing Point on the Dublin Road were noted but would be enhanced by nearby parking areas. The planting on the New Ross Road was pleasant and the boat at the junction caught the eye. The grotto high on Nunnery Road was colourful while the nearby roundabout on the Dublin Road was very impressive. Vinegar Hill is now endowed with a fine layout of monuments. Well done. Sadly the Peace Tree planted a few years ago has not survived. The area shows the circular signs of inappropriate driving use.
Well done on the work to the Slaney side cycle and walking path. This has opened up a delightful area where contact with the birds and wildlife of the valley is much more probable. The slipway here is also convenient for river users. Walking is facilitated by the newly installed Slí na Slánta route. The encouragement of wild life and bird life is of course at the core of this category but the task of encouraging interest in the topic is equally important. Have you considered seeking to establish small nature habitats within the grounds of the schools for example? Discuss the options with a local bird life enthusiast or consult the Wild Life Officer attached to the Office of Public Works for ideas as to how to proceed.
Litter management continues to be a strong point in that there were many suitable litter bins around Enniscorthy. The daily litter sweep is clearly having a good effect. The main areas were largely and mostly clear of litter but it continues to be a difficulty in some minor streets and housing areas. The newly established residents associations here will no doubt improve matters going forward. The arrival of the dog littering bins on the promenade is a welcome development.
Many elements and factors call to be considered in this ‘catch all’ category. A great deal of your town projects a neat and well ordered appearance. It is the unfortunate nature and duty of reports such as these to comment on the few items that jar, despite the overall good impression made by Enniscorthy. The entrance area to the splendid Rugby grounds need attention, the wall is cracked in a few places and also carried an amount of graffiti. Keeping to the sporting theme, the presentation of the Greyhound stadium also needs attention. Do ensure that following the use of chemical control of weeds, the dead vegetation is removed. The absence of grit and spoil at sides of roads is a delight and the removal of gum from streets while slow and costly is to be welcomed.
The location and presentation standard of your bottle bank in the long stay car park might be seen to be somewhat remote, but has the advantage of offering convenient parking. The signs on the car park give the area an unhelpful rundown feeling. Continue your efforts to have a proper and well sited facility installed soon.
Well done to the schools who have taken the difficult but worthwhile journey and secured their green flag status. This section of the competition is also about encouraging a change of mind-set in respect of waste minimisation. Literature is available from Wexford County Council and elsewhere to help individual households and the community at large to firstly reduce usage of scarce and expensive energy, reusing items where found appropriate and recycling materials wherever possible, so that the remaining amount of waste carried to landfill is minimised. Please consider staging an information evening on these and related topics such as home composting for example.
The large estates at Andy Doyle Close had a varied level of presentation both of individual houses and communal grassed areas. The Tort na Greine is a very new estate where the grassed area to the front has not yet been suitable prepared for planting and display. Rectory Heights featured a number of excellent gardens while Riverwood Estate was well kept and featured a fine name plate in stone.
The new residents associations formed during the year should lead in time to an inter-estate competition, a practice that else where has led to a general heightening of standards in all those estates who take part. The pilot use of willows for fencing in Convent Road will continue to be watched with interest and certainly wished success.
The main Dublin approach road is very well presented, wide, with suitable cut verges and some tree planting. Some attention is directed however to the crash barrier which has suffered some damaging impacts over the years. The Wexford approach along the picturesque Slaney provides excellent views of the Castle. Pleasant to report that all of the trees planted here have survived and are growing well. Name plates, direction signs and speed limit signs are clean and visible. The new surface of the Promenade is an improvement and opens this appealing river side access to many more passing motorists. Traffic volumes are intrusive at times but the one way system is a large aid to enhanced traffic flow rates.
A sizeable town with - it is now apparent - the will, tenacity and resolve to identify, deal with and overcome the many obstacles which marred it just a few short years ago. Your progress since this adjudicater last visited Enniscorthy, can only be described as robust and speaks volumes for your capacity to work together to achieve substantial improvements, a trajectory which it seems you are destined to continue. To everyone and each agency associated with this year’s entry our best thanks and applause. Please keep up the good work and you are wished well in next year’s competition.
The above is the official report lifted, today, from the TidyTowns website. Every year when the competition results are released I ask myself, is the town that I live in? The report must be done by a blind man on a galloping horse! Anybody taking the time to walk the town properly would see that the above report bears little relation to reality.
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