‘Long road’ to Gold Medal status for Athlone Tidy Towns

After three bronze medals and a silver last year, Athlone Tidy Towns finally realised their long-cherished ambition to take top honours in the National Tidy Towns Competition when they were awarded a Gold Medal in this year’s event.

For the Chair of Athlone Tidy Towns Committee, Gerry Johnson, and his hard working band of volunteers it was fitting vindication for their many years of persistence and he admitted this week that it has been “a long and difficult road” to achieve Gold Medal status garnering 335 points this year in the large town category, far exceeding Mullingar's 316.

“People think it is just the flick of a coin and you win a Gold Medal but it takes many hours, weeks and years of hard work by a small, but very dedicated group of people who volunteer week in and week out to keep the town in pristine condition.”

The Athlone Tidy Town Committee was reconstituted in 2006, and in the intervening years they won three Bronze medals and a Silver medal, so Gerry Johnson says they made “incremental improvements every year” before being awarded Gold Medal status this year.

“Our approach has always been to work closely with Athlone Moate Municipal District and the local business community to plan the actions required to attain Gold medal standard, and luckily we were successful this year,” he said.

The Gold medal is a reward for all the hard work of “hundreds of volunteers” in residential areas of Athlone who “roll up their sleeves and work diligently to keep their local environment clean and presentable,” Mr Johnson added.

He also said the Tidy Town Committee are indebted to those “who help financially” and he paid tribute to the local council staff, and said it was “this collective approach” of so many people that had contributed to the winning of the Gold Medal for Athlone.

He praised his fellow members on the Tidy Town Committee for their “valuable ongoing loyal support” and especially those members who come out every week to tackle tasks such as planting, painting and clearing up litter blackspots.

On the challenges that still lie ahead for Athlone, Gerry Johnson said the Tidy Towns Competition is “not just about making Athlone neat and attractive” but it has also broadened out to address issues such as nature, biodiversity and sustainability, or doing less with more.

The local committee has been approached by the National Tidy Towns head office to enter Athlone in next year’s ‘All Of Ireland Competition’ in the large town category where they will be required to compete with a town of similar size in Northern Ireland. “After our Gold Medal win this year, which we are thrilled with, we will be eagerly looking forward to the challenge next year” he ended.