Project Update
New Wildflower Area in Millstreet Park
Millstreet Tidy Town are delighted to announce that Denis and all his hard workers at FÁS have completed all the Wild Flower Areas in the Town Park. All 3 beds have been sprayed in preparation for planting in April/May. This is an ongoing project as part of our work with Wildlife Biologist, Tony Keneally. The Wild Flower Areas will be a beautiful addition to the Town Park. Our greatest thanks to Denis and the lads and all their tireless work.
Garden Bird Nest Box
Would you like a Free garden bird nest box?
Millstreet Tidy Towns is actively involved in conserving and enhancing wildlife in the Millstreet area and we have recently had a Biodiversity Action Plan produced for Millstreet. As part of this plan we have made 20 garden bird nest boxes and we are now looking for suitable homes within Millstreet for each box. The nest boxes were made by Millstreet Mens Shed and they are of a very high quality.
The boxes are suitable for Blue Tit and Great Tit which readily use nest boxes. The boxes can be placed on the wall of a building or on the trunk of a tree. Suitable homes would include houses that have a garden with some amount of cover including shrubs, hedging and trees. Houses with cats as pets are not suitable. Boxes will be fitted by Millstreet Tidy Towns/Mens Shed.
By taking a box you are providing a safe and secure nest site for our garden birds and helping in their conservation, as well as enjoying watching the birds use your nest box.In return,we would ask that you complete a once yearly survey detailing the type and number of birds using the birdbox.
If you are interested in taking a box please contact us here and leave your name, address and contact number and we will be in touch with you. Deadline for applications is Thursday, 24th of March. All applications will be vetted for suitability of location by Tony Keneally our Wildlife Biologist.
List of ways to contact us: www.millstreettidytown.ie
www.facebook.com/millstreettidytown
New Twinning Signs
Millstreet Tidy Town are delighted to share the news that the Millstreet – Pommerit-Le-Vicomte Twinning signs have been replaced with new signs, with a grant received for Cork County Council. Millstreet Tidy Town attempted to have these unsuccessfully cleaned up over the last number of years and discovered that it really was time for these to be replaced. The new signs are a welcome sight to the lead roads into town. Big thanks to the FÁS workers for installing the new sign. Well done to all involved.
Millstreet BNS visit from Wildlife Biologist
Millstreet Tidy Town Association are delighted to be working with Wildlife Biologist, Tony Keneally this year. Last week he paid a visit to 3rd Class of Millstreet Boys National SChool. Here is how they got on:
“The children were taking part in the Winter Garden Bird Survey run by Birdwatch Ireland. A feeding station with 2 peanut feeders was placed in the lawn outside the window of 3rd class. The kids have to record the different species of birds they see on or around the feeder. At the end of the week they fill in a form recording the highest number of each species seen during the week.
The survey runs from December – February and is a great way of raising awareness of the different species of garden birds, as well as being a valuable source of information for Birdwatch Ireland who can monitor the trends in bird numbers based on results submitted by schools and individuals.
I visited the school twice, once to give them posters and identification tips on the birds they were likely to see. My second visit was to check the progress and see how the kids were getting on.
At the start the kids knew 1 or 2 species whereas on my second visit they can identify at least 6 different species of bird and know about another 8 species. So overall it has suceeded in raising awareness and the kids have learnt to recognise different species.
Green Dog Walkers Campaign
Afternoon all, Green Dog Walkers Campaign is an initiative being run by Cork County Council to raise awareness through Dog Owners and Dog Walkers about the dangers of Dog Fouling. Lets face it people, whether you are walking a lap of the park, or Drishane Road, back the West End, it ain’t very pleasant if you step in dog poo. I know the weather is not the greatest @ the moment but as it will gradually start to improve, more and more of us will be out walking. The Green Dog Walkers campaign aims to get dog owners to just be mindful of the mess your pooch may leave behind. So what can we do, Sign a pledge card. That’s it. We are trying to get people to pick up poo. The pledge card is your promise to your community that you will be conscious of your doggies poop and pick it up. Simple but effective. Like most things if we all just mind our own little spot it makes a huge difference. Pledge cards are currently available in Millstreet Veterinary Clinic on Macroom Road. So please pick up a card and sign the pledge to clean up the poo from your pooch.
Welcome to 2016
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Happy New Year to Everybody. Apologies for the lack of communication for last number of weeks. This is now to end. Back to regular updates and posts. I can here all the shouts of joy from here. So what better way to start a New Year than to reflect on the achievements of the previous year. There is so much to choose from. Well we had a very successful Anti Litter Challenge campaign this last year. We have an eye on first place for 2016. Then there is also the various projects that Tony Keneally, Wildlife Biologist has been heavily involved in with both the National and Secondary Schools. Also brilliant results in the National Tidy Town for this past year, only narrowly missing out on a Bronze Medal. Millstreet won a Pride of Place award in October. New Water Butts were placed throughout the Town, as were hanging baskets and Nest boxes. Let’s not forget about the new Footpaths. These are only a few of the amazing accomplishments achieved by volunteers, FÁS workers, Council Workers and many more. All kindly giving up their time and energy to make our town a wonderful place to live. So what are the hopes for 2016. Well aim high is what I think. Anyone fancy volunteering email, tweet, Facebook, there no shortage of ways to communicate your interest to us. There is always plenty of work to be done. So as we begin to see a stretch starting to creep back into the evening and the rain has finally stopped, I found a nice little New Year’s quote that kind of sums up the feeling really.
“Be More Awesome Than Last Year”
Footpath Upgrade
Millstreet Tidy Town Association are pleased to announce that Cork County Council will be upgrading the footpath from Barrett’s Corner down to Noel C. Duggan’s. This is a great success for the Millstreet Tidy Town Association as we have been lobbying Cork County Council to under take this work for some years now. Work will commence before the end of 2015 we are assured. As always we will keep you up to date with any information we receive regarding this work and when it is due to commence.
Tidy Town Results
Millstreet Tidy Town are very proud to announce that this afternoon in The Helix in Dublin, it was announced that Millstreet received 302 points in the annual Tidy Town competition for 2015. This is an increase of 5 points on last years results. This is a huge achievement. So may thanks to all in all involved, big and small efforts made a lot of difference. Whilst we bask in the glow of this brilliant result, we must also bear in mind that we have plenty more work to do to prepare for next year. Only 20 points behind the overall winner Listowel, in our category. These points are precious and hard to achieve. Also we were only 1 point off receiving a bronze medal. So just think of what one small thing that you may have done that could have contributed to gaining that extra point. We are capable of most definitely achieving a Silver medal next year. So get the thinking caps on. New volunteers are always welcome, just send us an email, pm on Facebook or tweet if you like. Remember Tidy Town is all year, not just for the Summer. Congratulations to all involved. 2015 Adjudicator Results
Amazing Result in Anti Litter Challenge
Hot off the presses lads and lassies, Millstreet has just received 2nd place in our Category for Anti Litter Challenge 2015. Dunmanway placed 1st and Blarney placed 3rd, which is not bad company to be in at all. This is an amazing result. All the hard work and effort that the people of this town have put into this competition this year has really paid off. The place of 2nd place comes with a prize fund of €1200 which will go a long way to help Millstreet Tidy Town with their annual spend which can run up to €10000. So be very proud of yourselves people, even the smallest effort is so appreciated. Keep up the good work. We would also like to thank Cork County Council, sponsors of the annual competition. First place next year is on the horizon. The excitement is building, bring on the Tidy Town results and lest we forget the Best Commercial and Best Residential Competition the Millstreet Tidy Town are running this year.
Anti Litter Challenge – Result
On 3rd September, Thursday evening next, a representative group for Millstreet Tidy Town Association will be attending the results evening in Cork County Hall. We will find where we have placed in Anti Litter Challenge for 2015. Fingers crossed. If we win this the money which is in the prize fund will go along way to help Millstreet Tidy Town Association with the annual costs that are incurred each year. Here’s hoping for a good result.