During the past week Cork County Council has been busy installing new planters, seats and bins at various locations on Main Street. Yesterday and today were given over to the filling of the planters. The overall effect is stunning and greatly adds to the streetscape. Members of staff in the Charleville office have worked very hard to bring this project to fruition. This was no easy task – sourcing the furniture, getting quotes for the planting, deciding on a colour scheme, organising the staff to install and plant. Architectural staff decided the best locations and arrangement of the furniture .
This was the project for which CTT was awarded €20000 and we thank CCC for their tremendous efforts in seeing this project through and for keeping us informed at each stage of the project. Now it is up to all of us as members of this community to ensure that the planters are regularly watered so they will look as good at the end of the summer as they do now.
HANGING BASKETS
Hanging baskets have again been put in place on Main St and in the Plaza. We are grateful to volunteers who have undertaken to water some of the planters and hanging baskets. We will be approaching businesses near which the planters are located to request help with watering.
WILDFLOWERS
The wildflowers outside O’Shea’s on Bakers Road and in the wildlife area of the park are in full bloom at the moment and certainly worth a visit to either if you haven’t already spotted them.

The first round of the anti-litter challenge ran from May 14th t0 May 23rd. CTT volunteers were on the street each morning and were assisted by Transition Year students from St. Mary’s Secondary School and CBS Secondary School. St. Anne’s Primary School and CBS Primary are playing their part by keeping the area outside their school complexes litter free. On Tuesday 22nd we were also assisted by a group of staff from AIB Charleville whose participation was appreciated.
This year CTT volunteers have noticed a marked improvement and we thank all who are making a valuable contribution, especially those vintners who are sweeping up the cigarette butts outside their premises. This is very much appreciated by CTT volunteers. Again we are appealing to all smokers to use the bins provided.
Thank you to all the outlets who are displaying the beautiful anti-litter posters created by the children in all our schools, the printing of which was kindly sponsored by Da Vinci Creative. Please heed the message on these posters.
The second round of this competition runs from May 28th to June 6th. We will be on the streets again and seeking the co-operation of everyone in keeping the streets litter free. Schools, Service areas, the Town Park and some housing estates are also being judged so please be conscious of this.

On Monday 21st we had a great turn out for our weekly clean up and weeded and brushed Smith’s Lane, Noonan’s Lane and the car park. A large stack of black bags was left for collection by Cork County Council. The hard work put in by regular CTT volunteers week in, week out is highly commended and it was fantastic to be joined by several new volunteers which meant more work could be done. Our town will certainly benefit and volunteers enjoy a chat and a bit of banter as well
On Monday 28th we will meet at Mannix College at 7pm and work back towards The Four Winds. . A cead mile failte awaits anyone who turns up at mannix College at 7pm on Monday 28th. A shovel and brush would help but is not essential.

DA VINCI T-SHIRTS A HIT WITH STUDENTS
THE ANTI LITTER POSTER COMPETITION which was kindly sponsored by Da Vinci Creative was a tremendous success with 400 entries submitted to Charleville Tidy Towns. Entries were received from Holy Family School, St Joseph’s Primary School, St Anne’s Primary School, CBS Primary School, St. Mary’s Secondary School and CBS Secondary School. The aim of the competition was to raise awareness in the community of the need to dispose properly of litter. The Anti-litter Challenge run by Cork County Council is underway at the moment and will continue till 20 June.
The judges were very impressed by the creativity shown by all participants and found the task of selecting winners very difficult. All the posters are currently on display in the library and we would encourage everyone to visit and enjoy the work of our young students. We thank the staff of Charleville Library for facilitating the prizegiving and the exhibition of posters.
Students, teachers and parents assembled in the library on Tuesday at 12 0’clock for the presentation of prizes. All were welcomed by CTT Chairman, Mr. John Mc Mahon who thanked them for their participation and thanked their teachers who supported the competition. He thanked Mr Adrian Wells of Da Vinci Creative for his very generous sponsorship. Cllr Ian Doyle added his thanks and invited Mr. Wells to present the prizes. Each winner was presented with a T-shirt and poster printed by Da Vinci Creative bearing the winner’s individual design. Da Vinci kindly printed sets of posters of each design which will be displayed in many outlets in Charleville. CTT is very grateful to Adrian and Esie for their support and valued sponsorship.
Please heed the message on these beautiful, colourful posters which you will see displayed in various outlets and help us to keep Charleville tidy.

Charleville Tidy Towns (CTT) set itself a target this year to plant 60+ new trees to mark the 60 years of the Tidy Towns competition. Extensive tree planting of Hornbeam trees and hedging has now been completed to create a more planned Avenue impact effect on four of its five approach roads. The inspiration for this integrated project was created by the excellent landscape planning of the entrance and grounds of the new Charleville community Primary Care Medical centre on Cork South and we acknowledge the support and all the excellent work of Cork CC landscaping team.
We also requested the St. Mary’s Secondary school team to plant one additional tree
to mark the foundation date of Charleville in May 1661, which reads 61 each way.

The new community web site was developed to communicate the scope of the new Plan of Actions with all sectors of the local community, to signpost the future initiatives planned for Charleville community over the next three years and to increase community involvements in support of ongoing actions and new projects. A brief summary profile of some projects is outlined under community and Charleville Tidy Towns welcomes all feedback on the new site and your ongoing support for its projects.
Charleville Tidy Towns acknowledges the contributions of Da Vinci Creative, Charleville, on design & development of this new web site.

Charleville Tidy Towns  presented its new 3 year plan of actions for 2018 to 2020 at a recent public meeting in Charleville, where plans to establish a new Community web site and a Sustainable Energy Community [SEC] were both announced.

Charleville Tidy Towns has completed a new  Walkways Map to feature safe walking & well being for all ages in the community and for visitors to appreciate the extensive new floral landscaping completed in recent months of 2017-2018. This new map and the excellent Cork County Council Heritage map of the Historic Town of Charleville, established in 1661, can be downloaded from links below on this site, which also includes brief profiles of eight of these Heritage features.

Charleville Tidy Towns acknowledges the ongoing support by Cork County Council with recent awards of Special grants under the Towns Development Fund being allocated for improvements to the Town Park including a pedestrian link between this major amenity and the main street. Funding will also be set aside for promotional signs and new floral displays on approach roads.

John Mc Mahon, Chairperson of Charleville Tidy Towns [CTT] presented its new 3 year plan of actions for 2018 to 2020 at a recent public meeting in Charleville, where plans to establish a new Community web site and a Sustainable Energy Community [SEC] were both announced.

CTT needs urgent proactive community involvement on Anti Litter Drive. Tidiness & Litter Control is still THE major challenge in many areas of the town streets, residential areas and approach roads where Litter is judged.
In 2017 Charleville scored a very low 50 marks[ 56%] and lost out on -40 marks [-44%] of the total 90 marks available in this vital core category.
N.B. This represents an increase of just 2 marks or 2.5% increase over the past 4 years, a less than impressive improvement performance trend, despite the regular clean up actions by dedicated staff from Cork County Council and very active support of our CTT team.
All Residential area associations across the Community are now strongly encouraged to help tackle the causes of this Litter problem by involvement and participation in the annual Spring Clean Anti Litter campaign over 4 weeks in April. CTT will provide support and assistance to teams in each area, provide refuse recycling bags and organize with CCC for collection & counting.

If your residential area team wishes to participate in this clean up of your area and be allocated a slot in our clean up schedule please contact us by email asap on info@charlevilletidytowns.ie , with suggested clean up date preference.

To monitor each Spring clean up CTT must advise & demonstrate to the Tidy Towns judges the scale of clean up in all areas. This year we will maintain a ‘League Table’ of Bags of litter counted & photographed on collection in what we hope will be many emerging Litter Free Zones. League table results will be reported back to each residential area representative, into the TT submission for May, 2018 and on our new CTT web site.

CTT Recognition Awards will be presented, after the annual TT national awards in September, for the best area team efforts, best involvement of youth, best web site feedback provided on the source causes of litter in your area and your best recommendations or suggestions for future Litter prevention.
All Community anti litter prevention recommendations will be evaluated in confidence and published on new web site for inclusion in future action planning within the community, with youth education, with CCC and CTT.

Please get your residential area involved in our Anti LITTER Clean up.
Please contact; info@charlevilletidytowns.ie stating your area, street, estate, association, location. Look forward to your Active participation.