Kill village no longer Kildare’s Tidiest Town

Kill village in County Kildare have the honour of being county-winner in the Tidy Towns competition for an amazing 24 years in a row. Until this year, that is, when Kill came second to Rathangan, losing by just 5 points.

Tears! Wrenching of hands! Gnashing of teeth!

Expectations had been higher than ever when the committee received 8 tickets to the award ceremony compared to the previous year’s allocation of 4. Everyone was positive a national award was coming. It wasn’t to be.

So what went wrong? Was it down to the chaos caused by roadworks during the N7 upgrade? Probably not. Rathangan too suffered roadworks and the disruption of new housing developments being built.

The report from the Tidy Towns adjudicators makes two important observations:
- Firstly, there was litter to be found at a small number of locations. Not much. But littering on any scale is seen as a major failing in this competition.
- Secondly, there was no effort made to minimise waste. Waste minimisation was a new facet this year. And Kill scored 0 out of a possible 20 marks.

Any effort, no matter how small, would have secured points. A score of just 25% would have meant 5 marks and resulted with Kill and Rathangan being in a tie. 30% and Kill would have won.

Was this ignored by the Kill committee? Rathangan made it one of their main goals. Their website lists, among their objectives, providing businesses, institutions etc. with information on recycling and waste disposal, and assisting schools gaining An Taisce green status. On top of this, Rathangan Tidy Towns also ran a recycling promotion in 2006.

Are the Kill committee still ignoring waste minimisation? I think so. Just yesterday I seen a man busy at work mowing grass in one of the church yards and putting the cuttings in the refuse bin. Rathangan use a mulching machine and a compost heap.

Don’t get me wrong. Kill remains beautiful. The committee and volunteers are among the most dedicated and hard working in the country. The residents take great pride in their village. Even the newcomers grow to love it as those who are there generations do. The point is that if you enter a competition you must play by the rules and Kill failed to do that this year.

Roll on next year and a 25th win!