In the first of a two part series on Collooney, the Weekender in the community speaks to the local Tidy Towns, people involved in Community Games, a new restaurateur in the area and the Couch 2 5k program.
Here is a taster of the two page feature in this week’s paper. Also, check out next week’s edition (June 2) for more stories from Collooney.
THE TidyTowns initiative has encouraged towns around the the country to tackle problems in their community including litter and dilapidated buildings.
Among the Sligo areas making great strides in recent years is Collooney, who have been steadily climbing the annual rankings.
The TidyTowns committee in Collooney is headed by Daniel Gallagher who is eager to get more residents involved in the group.
“I have been involved in the Tidy Towns group for around three years now. We have been taking part in the Tidy Towns competition for 16 years, it is very community based and we want to get more people out and getting involved,” he said.
Daniel is pleased with their progress but he has stressed that there is much more work than can be done to enhance the area.
“We have always gained points, not massively, but it is a work in progress and we aren’t going to just jump from a low rank to a high rank, it is going to take a number of years and with more people on board the more projects we can undertake.”
One such project has been the renovation of the listed Inishfree Crystal building which had been considered an “eyesore” for a numbers of years. Local children have also been praised for their increased anti-litter efforts in keeping their school and play areas clean.
“The litter isn’t as much of a problem as it used to be. The fact that we have gotten the school very much involved has helped with that because kids aren’t littering as much as they used to, they are much more conscious of the problem. When it comes to derelict builds, the Inishfree Crystal building was one of the biggest projects we took on in recent years, it had been an eyesore for the last ten years so we went in, scraped back the old paint and took out all the trees and weeds which will provide better access and we are also in the process of re-painting it.”
Daniel once again emphasised his desire to see more members join the group and explained how anyone interested in joining can begin their work closer to home if they wish.
“You don’t have to come out on a Wednesday or a Saturdya with us to pick up litter, tidy up around your own estate because the biggest thing is if everyone looks after their own area and if the businesses look after the area outside their premises then that would make the job an awful lot easier. If someone does have time, then we would love to have them out with us, we meet every Wednesday at 7pm and Saturday mornings at 11am and the more people who come out with us, the better.”
Anyone seeking further information can e-mail collooneytidytowns12@gmail.com.
