2017 National Tidy Towns Conference

national tidy towns logoThe 2017 National Tidy Towns Conference takes place in Westport on Friday the 24th and Saturday the 25th of March. The conference is taking place in the Town Hall Theatre and is a great opportunity for tidy towns committees and volunteers to meet and share ideas and experiences. Due to the high level of interest in the conference, those interested in attending are advised to book their tickets early to avoid disappointment.

2017 Conference Programme

Friday 24th

8:00pm Conference Opening Cllr. Brendan Mulroy, Cathaoirleach, West Mayo Municipal District
8:10pm Exhibition Opening: “Westport Tidy Towns – Sweeping Through the Years” by Dermot Bannon, Architect.

Saturday 25th

9:15am Coffee & Registration Westport Town Hall Theatre, The Octagon
9:45am Conference Opening Dermot Bannon, Master of Ceremonies
9:50am Welcome Address Noel Kavanagh, SuperValu
10.00am “Catching the Eye of the Adjudicator” Sharon Eastwood, National Tidy Towns Adjudicator
10.40am “Practical Projects & Invasive Species” Peter Gill, Parks Superintendent, Mayo County Council
11.20am Tea & Coffee Break
11.40am “Working With Communities” Sharon Cameron, Environmental Awareness Officer, Mayo Co. Co.
12:00pm “Our Story – Sharing the Skerries Success” Maeve McGann & Anne Doyle, Skerries – National Winners 2016
12.20pm “What Makes for a Good Biodiversity Project” Billy Flynn, National Tidy Towns Adjudicator
1:00pm Lunch At the Wyatt Hotel across the Octagon
2:00pm “Waste & Resource Management – Getting Results!” Lorraine Power, National Tidy Towns Adjudicator
2.50pm “The Westport Experience” Eithne Larkin, Chairperson, Westport Tidy Towns & Simon Wall, Westport Town Architect, Mayo County Council
3.50pm Adjudicators Q&A
4:50pm Speakers Closure Michael Ring TD, Minister of State for Regional Economic Development
5.00pm Conference Group Photograph Led by Dermot Bannon and Tidy Towns Adjudicators

Guest Speakers

  • Sharon Eastwood is a biologist by training. Her appointment as a national Tidy Towns adjudicator in 2009 reflected the newer categories of the competition. Since then she has assisted in shaping a new direction for the national Tidy
    Towns competition. Sharon has delivered numerous workshops and presentations for Tidy Towns communities and Local Authorities across Ireland. Sharon has worked with the RSPB and The Wildfowl and Wetland Trust, and is co director of Woodrow Environmental Consultants.
  • Lorraine Power is an Environmental Scientist and Tidy Towns adjudicator since 2009, and has been involved in developing national guidelines for Tidy Towns. Lorraine has served as Environmental Awareness Officer with four separate Local Authorities. She has a wide range of experience in delivering environmental awareness workshops
    and plans to community groups, schools and businesses and specialises in Sustainable Waste & Resource Management. Lorraine has adjudicated Fáilte Ireland’s Tourism Towns competition in 2012 and 2013.
  • Billy Flynn has over 20 years’ experience in environmental consultancy. He was manager of the National Environmental Education Centre from 1999 until 2006 and lecturer in ecology and biology at DIT. He regularly leads events on grasslands and woodland ecology. He is a Director of Rivus, a Director of the Irish Wildlife Trust, a former Director of Voluntary Service International and has been a Tidy Towns adjudicator for 10 years. He is co director of Flynn-Furney Environmental Consultants.
  • Maeve McGann and Anne Doyle are members of the 2016 national winners, Skerries Tidy Towns. They are keen to share the key to their success with us.
  • Sharon Cameron is the Environment Awareness Officer with Mayo County Council for over 16 years. In this role Sharon has worked closely with communities, schools and businesses throughout Mayo in leading campaigns to promote greater care for our environment particularly in the areas of waste and litter management.
  • Peter Gill is a horticulturalist and Parks Superintendent with Mayo County Council, and has worked successfully on hundreds of projects with Tidy Towns and Community Groups in counties Sligo and Mayo.
  • Eithne Larkin is Chairperson of Westport Tidy Towns, which has three national wins under it’s belt. It is her second time as chairperson, and she has been strategic in delivering Tidy Towns success for Westport over the past two decades having chaired the 2008 national win.
  • Simon Wall has been Town Architect to Westport for the past two decades, where he has managed the built environment as part of the town’s management team. He has worked as Mayo County Council’s representative within Westport Tidy Towns throughout this time.
  • Noel Kavanagh is Managing Director of the Kavanagh Group, Westport, where he has developed Ireland’s largest independent supermarket retail company. With 11 SuperValu stores nationally and additional stores in the UK, the Kavanagh Group employs 900 people. Noel is an ardent advocate of Tidy Towns, and has voluntarily headed the community investment company that has delivered the Westport Town Hall Theatre (conference venue) as a civic facility for the town.

Those interested in attending are advised to book their tickets early to avoid disappointment. Tickets are €30 each and can be purchased on the website at www.westporttheatre.com, or by phone on (098) 28459 and by email to info@westporttheatre.com.

TidyTowns.ie

Michael
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