From Stop Food waste to Time Banking - it's all part of Tidy Towns !

26/02/2014

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From Stop Food waste to Time Banking - it’s all part of Tidy Towns !

Over 70 people attended the South Dublin County Tidy Towns public meeting in the Green Isle Hotel on Wednesday 19th February. The Mayor Dermot Looney opened the meeting and congratulated the 8 Tidy Town groups currently in the competition from South Dublin County.

Mayor Looney said “ I am aware of the great impact Tidy Towns groups have made in their local areas . As Mayor I have been lucky to meet many of the groups and see at first hand the work you do on the ground and the positive connections you have made between young and old, schools and businesses. I hope that after this event we will see more groups in the County.”

Tommy Keogh from Clondalkin Tidy Towns chaired the event.

Food waste costs Irish householders €700 each year. Most of the wasted food ends up in landfills with significant local environmental impacts. Colm Gibson from the Stop Food Waste Campaign outlined ways of reducing food waste and how Tidy Towns could play a part in this campaign

Rosaleen Dwyer, County Heritage Officer spoke of the importance of biodiversity. She said Tidy Towns group can make a positive impact on their environment by planting native trees and shrubs, creating homes and habitats for wildlife.

Shane Byrne is a member of the North Clondalkin Tidy Towns committee told the story of how the group got together last year. The group entered the Tidy Towns competition and play an active part in the South Dublin Tidy Towns Together network. North Clondalkin is the envy of a lot of Tidy towns groups as they have a number of young students on the committee.

Tim Austen has over fifteen years of experience in landscape planning, design and management. He has received awards for his design work including the top award at the Bloom festival in Dublin. Tim has developed master plans and green infrastructure plans for Tidy Town villages and spoke of the work that he has done in Ballon,Co Carlow and Ashbourne in Meath.

Miriam and Bev Cotton spoke of the Clonakilty Favour Exchange is a skills and labour exchange system. It is open, voluntary and does not involve the making or spending of money. It is at heart "an economy of goodwill" with its own currency, the favour. President Higgins was in Clonakilty recently and said “ You have demonstrated great innovation here locally in devising - the Clonakilty Favour Exchange - trading time and talent is a great community response to the straitened times we live in. “http://www.clonfavour.com/

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