Tipperary Town was ‘buzzing’ last Friday evening, as Tipperary Tidy Towns followed on their recent success in the National Tidy Towns competition by launching their Landscape and Biodiversity Plan 2022-2027 at St. Ailbe’s School. A crowd of over 100 people attended the event which also featured the launch of the Tipperary Tidy Towns Poster Experience, a series of printed images submitted by local businesses and organisations with the theme of ‘Pride in our Community’.
Paul O’Callaghan, chairperson of Tipperary Tidy Towns, was the MC for the night.
Cllr. Roger Kennedy gave the opening address. He praised the efforts that the whole town has made in recent years, acknowledging the huge efforts made by the Tidy Towns Committee especially with litter picking. Michael Begley of Tipperary Town Revitalisation Task Force then outlined plans to develop a new Energy Master Plan (EMP) for the town, before Anthony Coleman, District Administrator with Tipperary County Council outlined the progress made on the River Ara Walk, Tipperary Hills and other local amenities – with the good news that access to the new walkway may be possible before the end of the year. Additional elements will be constructed in 2023.
Guest speaker, Éanna Ní Lamhna then spoke about the huge importance of Biodiversity and praised the comprehensive nature of the Tipperary Town Landscape and Biodiversity Plan 2022 to 2027. The attendance also had an opportunity to speak with Albert Nolan and Timmy White about supports for biodiversity especially bats and the Tuesday Women’s Group from Knockanrawley Resource Centre shared their newly launched Tipperary Town Heritage Trail.
The Landscape and Biodiversity Plan 2022-2027 was devised by Ruth Broderick in collaboration with many community members – Ms Broderick gave an overview of the plan which runs to some two hundred and forty-nine pages – the aim of the plan is to use every opportunity in the town to support biodiversity – plant and animal life, essential to maintain the planet’s ecosystem. There will be hard copies of the plan in the Tipperary town Library and Resource Centres from midweek. The plan cost approximately € 5,000 to produce and was commissioned by Tipperary Tidy Towns with support from the Task Force and Tipperary County Council. It is hoped to be able to make the plan available on the Revitalisation website but it may be necessary to split the plan into smaller sections to enable this method of access.
Chairman Paul O’Callaghan concluded the evening by offering his thanks to event sponsors Knockanrawley Resource Centre, the dedicated Tidy Towns committee and everyone that worked to make the evening such a success.
