Entente Florale Judges Impressed With Our Lovely Town

Click on above ad for more

Entente Florale Judges, Kerry County Council staff, Tralee Wetlands staff and others make their way into the Tralee Wetlands Centre which was the final stop on the judges itinerary.

WHAT a day it was for Tralee  when it showed the Entente Florale judges all it had to offer.

And the adjudicators in the Europe-wide Tidy Towns competition were very impressed by all accounts!

“It was a great success. It’s very hard to judge because we had 12 different adjudicators from 11 different countries, but we had a very impressive programme for them,” said Kerry County Council Tourism Officer, John Griffin.

“I think they were impressed. They were visiting high quality projects as part of this competition so it was nice to be nominated for Ireland this year. We have made great progress in the Tidy Towns over the past ten years and I think we have come up another level now. Enormous work has been done for this by the businesses and townspeople and there’s great pride in the town,” said John.

The judges, accompanied by Kerry County Council officials, members of Tidy Towns and Tralee Chamber Alliance, were taken all over town by bus on Thursday. Among the places they visited were Manor West Retail Park, Manor Village, Tobar Naofa, Mercy Moyderwell Primary, St John’s Church, the Town Park, Denny Street down to The Mall – where the Tralee Pipe and Drum Band led them to The Square for a special reception with the army band, crafts fair and Transition Towns stands. They also visited the museum, Siamsa Tire, Blennerville Windmill and finally the Tralee Wetlands.

Kieran Ruttledge, CEO of Tralee Chamber Alliance echoed the views of John Griffin. “I was talking to a couple of the judges – now of course they can’t give us an indication of what we are likely to achieve – but they were very appreciative of what we were showing them and the feedback we have got is good,” said Kieran.

“The important thing to get across is that it’s not a flower competition as many think it is. It’s about the ‘greening’ of the town and making it a nice place to live and visit and, from Tralee Chamber Alliance’s point of view, that’s one of our main objectives. What we’ve seen today has been fabulous,” he said.

Kieran was effusive in his praise for the people and businesses of Tralee. “We made a major call for everybody to work on this and improve the town. What we’ve done, because of this competition, is we’ve raised the bar and we need to maintain this excellent level we’ve achieved,” he said.

“People will come to Tralee and say ‘this is a great town, a fabulous place’ and if you attract people, you’ll attract more business.” He also had special praise for Tidy Towns, Towards A Better Tralee and especially Kerry County Council officials.

“The work I’ve seen the council officials and staff put in over the past few months has been phenomenal. Michael Scannell and John Griffin deserve huge praise for this and their hard work had borne fruit today,” he said.

Let’s hope they are all rewarded in September when we get the results.

The judges at Blennerville Windmill on Thursday.

They also got a great view of the Wetlands and the surrounding area from the viewing tower.

The Square was the venue for a special public reception on Thursday for the judges.