The results of the 2017 Tidy Town’s competition has seen Boyle receive an overall mark in Category D of 285.
This compares to a mark of 284 in 2016.
The report highlights a number of positive (and negative) aspects to the town and below are some of the highlights:
- Boyle is such a historic town that it is easy to get lost in exploring the old buildings and reading the plaques. The historic Boyle Abbey is such an important asset for the town; it is great to see it being open to visitors.
- Your application mentions the courthouse development which is in progress and your hopes to have open in late summer with the model railway in situ. We enjoyed walking around the Crescent and we admired the planting schemes located there. It would be great if the pedestrian element of the Crescent could be expanded by reducing the amount of car parking. In that regard, we explored the rear of the courthouse and discovered plenty of empty parking spaces. In fact the larger area fronting Tangier Toys (sic) is a valuable space that is under used. Have you explored improving the access to this area and encouraging people to use it for parking and freeing up the Crescent to enhance the town further? The old courthouse is fine granite structure and the tower is another valuable part of your heritage.
- Well done to the many traders and businesses throughout the town who have taken good care of their buildings and painted them to enhance the town’s appearance. These included traditional shopfronts such as the Open Table, Visionary Studios, The Moylurg Inn, Margaret’s Café, the Hospice Shop, The Patrick’s Well Pub, P. McGrath’s Butchers and we also admired the modern styled Spool Factory and Green Street Garage which looked very clean. This effort is particularly striking when we see a number of premises that are no longer trading and some buildings in need of attention. Considering discussions in the media this summer about increasing the retirement age to 70 years, it is interesting to learn that Boyle is the first age friendly town in the county.
- The Crescent area is the most prominent and important area of the town and quite rightly, you have made a special effort there with a mixture of perennial and annual planting in several beds which we greatly admired.
- Boyle is a large area and therefore, the task of controlling litter is a significant one. We are pleased to report that we found very little litter during our visit.
- It was disappointing to find some very untidy premises in some locations; no doubt you are very familiar with them and because they are private, you have very little control in implementing any improvements. Added to that are the number of vacant dwellings and some in a bad state of repair on various streets. We recognise that these are major challenges for you which you hope toresolve in the years to come.
- Well done on your efforts to keep Boyle looking its best. You have done a good job especially in the Crescent. We hope this report provides some guidance for your continued work.
You can read the full judges report here
