What The Tidy Towns Judges Said About Gold Medal-Winning Tralee

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AS we told you earlier today, Tralee has retained its Tidy Towns gold medal it won in 2012 and has kept ever since.

Tributes have been flowing in from Mayor of Tralee, Terry O’Brien and others for the amazing work done by Tidy Tralee, Kerry County Council, Team Bramble and others involved.

The town achieved 312 points this year, up seven on 2015. The adjudicators report has been released and they have some great things to say about Tralee.

Continued below…

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“Most people associate Tralee with the festival but it is so much more,” they said. “Heritage, history, shopping, eateries and some great people. Everyone should be encouraged to explore not just the Town park, but the walkways, resident areas and everywhere you will find something to enjoy. You are working hard to achieve your mission ‘To Make Tralee the best place in Ireland to Live, Work and Visit’. It was a delight for your adjudicator to explore Tralee and to feel pride in seeing so many tourists enjoy and explore the town.”

Here’s the full report…

Built Environment and Streetscape

The central streets of Tralee are lovely to explore. Denny Street is very imposing and will no doubt impress many of the tourists and attract a lot of visitors to the County Museum.

The modern design of Central Square attracts many evening dinners into this public space. Your adjudicator was intrigued by the overhead wires here but could not fathom their use?

Those three-storey Georgian houses on Godfrey Place which had traditional wooden sash windows in place looked very well. The wrought iron railings here may need some attention in the near future.

County Hall was in the middle of being painted and should look very well. One very striking modern building which was excellently designed was Green’s secondary school. The lack of the name sign meant your adjudicator did have to ask what the building was, although the planted school desks at the entrance should have been a good clue.

Well done on the construction of the new Rose Walk. Your adjudicator particular liked the array of independent shops that would no doubt make Tralee a great shopping town.

There were the modern, striking window displays of skateboards and paddle boards at ‘Surf n Sail’ and the discreet, attractive clothes boutiques on Dominick Street such as ‘Iota’ looked good.

The Horan Centre caught the eye of your adjudicator as the dark colour scheme worked very well and a discreet first floor level signs help demonstrate that all the individual shops were part of this one centre.

Further north the modest design and landscaping around the Meadowlands hotel fitted nicely in this more residential part of Tralee.

Landscaping and Open Spaces

All the parks in Tralee were just lovely and your adjudicator cannot speak highly enough of how you manage your open spaces – from the large town park to the river bank at Ballymullen/Killerisk.

So well done to the volunteers from your ‘Inspired’ community groups for their efforts. It was your adjudicator’s first visit into Tralee’s Town Park
which was exemplary.

The magnificent oak tree as you enter must be hundreds of years old. The rose gardens, the new rose walk and the garden centres were all explored. It was lovely to see so many tourists enjoying exploring this park later this summer’s evening.

Some were then seen later on exploring the riverside walk and admiring the wildlife signs near the Wetlands Centre. Here there were great views from the observation tower.

What was also commendable was that every shopping centre car park, small and large had many mature trees incorporated into their design. It was good to have time to read the memorials for the 175 Tralee men who died in World War I, and to enjoy the ogham display and trees near Castlemorris.

You state that you have given over 5000 shrubs this year to local groups to enhance their areas. This is great – what type of shrubs? Are they native? Are they recommended under the National Pollination Plan?

Wildlife, Habitats and Natural Amenities

Castlemorris Terrace Resident’s Association wildlife habitat was a delight to discover and well done to these hard working volunteers. The colours were wonderful on a late Summer’s evening.

The swift and bat box projects sound great. Did Dr McCormack just address the TidyTowns Committee or was the event advertised for anyone to attend?

You are doing good work to enhance the habitats of endangered species such as swifts and bats. But your adjudicator would like to learn how you are raising awareness to the wider community. Did you organise any bat walks in the Summer?

Often if locals are involved in making and erecting bird and bat boxes they will monitor them and help record details of their residents.

Your long-term plan did not mention promoting or engaging the community about the designated habitats in and around Tralee. You are fortunate to have 2 designated sites protected under European law by Tralee: Ballyseedy Wood (Special Area of Conservation (SAC) no. 2112) and Tralee Bay and Magharees Peninsula (SAC no. 2070).

‘Bug hotels’ are as simple fun educational project suitable for schools or estates where there are few other local habitats to shout about. In some cases tree planting has not worked very well. For example on the Bill Kinnerk Road all of the trees need a lot of attention.

Tidiness and Litter Control  

Well done to all your regular litter pickers and those who helped out with the spring clean. Pictures in your application form showed ‘Team Bramble’ braving the river’s edge to pick up the litter! The Poop Scoop posters and survey by the Presentation girls was good.

No dog waste was noticed on the main thoroughfares on adjudication day. Staff at McDonald’s were noticed outside cleaning up their area where the new anti-litter sign was noticed. It was interesting to note that those serving a community sentence were also involved with your litter picking.

Around the central square, cigarette butts were abundant. Bins for the cigarette butts were noticed on premises but it seems that smokers may need more persuasion to dispose of their litter appropriately. Perhaps the litter wardencan help in this regard? In some cases the parking signs were quite battered and may need to be replaced.

Galvanised utility boxes stood out on Denny Street. It is suggested that these are painted or better still you could carry out an art project such as that completed by Dublin City Council this year where they became canvases for artists.

There was a very rusty field fence on the N86 and Ballymullen opposite the nicely painted ‘Minnies’. On poles along Clash Road there were cable ties left – but at height making them difficult for any volunteer or litter warden to remove these.

It is suggested that the councillors are encouraged to these removed.

Sustainable Waste and Resource Management

This category of the competition is not just about diverting waste from landfill but it is about the efficient use of resources in your community.

Recycling should be well established in your community and this category considers all resources including water and energy and sustainable transport.

Your adjudicator would like to highly commend Colette and Dawn for their work at Tralee Soup Kitchen ensuring food is not wasted but is used to feed those less fortunate.

They do tremendous work as does the St Vincent De Paul’s Food bank. Well done to the TY CBS students for helping with your ‘fruit & nut’ orchard.

Allotments and gardens are also good to reduce the amount of miles that food is transported. Do many children in Tralee cycle to school? Is there a good bus network?

Residential Streets & Housing Areas

Castle Morris Terrace was a lovely row of terraced homes as was typical of all the homes in the area including Castle Morris Orchard. The residents Association in this area should be justly pride of the wonderful landscaping and litter picking as this part of Tralee was immaculate.

Dog walkers were enjoying the canal walk and were observed disposing of their dog waste bags appropriately.

Homes in Rahoonane were nicely presented and there were some nice planters at the entrance to this estate. They would benefit from a coat of paint.

Here and numerous other places throughout Tralee there was strong evidence were long parts of weed killer have been applied at the edges of grass verges, under trees and on pavements.

This is a very environmentally-unfriendly habit and such excess use of herbicide is condemned. Communities are asked to consider hand streaming/edging if necessary and are also reminded that your adjudicators will welcome growth in certain areas.

At the base of trees mulching is a preferred method to suppress growth. This use of weed killer was observed not just in residential estates but in some of the public parks (eg. At the very nice Royal Munster Fusiliers monument).

Homes around the Ballymullen area were lovely and it’s free new energy-efficient houses at Michel’s Road were just finished. As yet they had no residents but they should make for a lovely home.

The works at Racecourse Lawn’s green area were admired – goodness – what a long street this is?

Approach Roads, Streets & Lanes

The main roads around Tralee were excellently managed and the sponsored roundabouts looked very well. Your new Rose of Tralee roundabout was certainly in bloom on adjudication day.

The Dan Spring road was nicely designed especially were the avenue of trees separated this road from other residential streets. It was felt that smaller roundabouts at the North of the town were not as well kept (eg. The roundabout at Upper Rock Road).

Some of the planters positioned in these were in a state of disrepair. But nearby at the western end of Brewery road the landscaping was lovely.

Forge cross roundabout has very large name signs which obscure the views and do not enhance the area. In some areas such as Gas Terrace, road markings are in a very poor condition.

There was a very old NDP sign at the Ballybeggan/Muing Link Road. This was funded under the 2000-2006 scheme so it should have been taken down some time ago. The entrance to the business park near here needed some attention.

Your adjudicator felt it is a pity that many of the road names and roundabouts are named after people as opposed to being derived from the traditional Townland names of the area.

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