Download the 2022 Tidy Towns Newcastle PDF Report here
Scores for Newcastle have increased by 10 points and the adjudicators reports received will be used to identify future improvements in our Village. The ambition is that Newcastle would be the first area in Wicklow to win a National Award.
Newcastle has developed a community forum structure to discuss the future direction of the village. You have a small but dedicated committee of five helped by around nine volunteers and connect with everyone using both traditional and modern communication methods. You have great support from the village when you have bigger projects to complete, and it is heartening to see that people turn out in strength as needed.
The 68 new houses at Chancel Way in the village are nearing completion and these will help to rejuvenate and re-energise the village by bringing new residents, new families to participate in the everyday life of Newcastle, which like many small rural towns and villages has been suffering some decline over the years.
Your group has not only developed strong links with the local authority and many other agencies and organisations locally and nationally, but you regularly collaborate with the local school and the sports and socials clubs in the area. This year you have planned to work with the transition students from the secondary schools.
In common with many other community organisations, your group had to find new ways to communicate to keep local people engaged with your activities; you embraced several social media platforms, newsletters, the traditional local press and even the village noticeboard to keep your message and activities to the fore in the locality – well done!
Download the 2022 Tidy Towns Newcastle PDF Report here
Once again Newcastle has increased its performance in the Tidy Towns competition with 326 points in 2022 compared with 319 in 2021. The performance has shown a consistent improvement each year since 2010 when a score of 250 was achieved. The result is a credit to the way in which the village has been consistently maintained by a small core of volunteers backed up by larger numbers during our village clean day in the spring and the involvement of children in the successful anti- litter campaign, including the annual beach clean-up.
The judges, who visited the village, were particularly impressed by a number of issues with brief extracts from the Report listed below:
What an excellent idea – a Village Forum with dedicated committees. It is an ideal medium in which to allow residents, existing & new, to connect, discuss, share knowledge & talk to each other about a wide range of topics that impact on the village as a whole & they as individuals.
Newcastle’s heritage is certainly on show in the village & surrounds…. on the day of adjudication, there was no doubting the pride Newcastle residents have in their village as homes & gardens were well presented.
Your Heritage Trail is a wonderful amenity… Your newly formed Biodiversity group has not let the grass grown under their feet. It is fantastic to see they have engaged with the council on the County Development Plan, Local Authority Waters Programme.
The planting of over 200,000 native species trees by Newcastle landowners & the community of Newcastle is quite the achievement.
It is great to hear that the Repair Café is to receive a weekly spot in the Community Centre. This initiative addresses the issue of waste’s first R, reuse. How many times has an item been discarded for want of a simple repair? The demonstration of the repair gives people both confidence & skill to complete the task themselves the next time.
To hear that you have noticed a significant reduction in litter volume & that the art awareness campaign run for local children has generated a positive outcome is brilliant.
It was a delight to visit Newcastle although the foul weather cut short the Heritage Trail walk. Your work in the area of biodiversity is commendable & your plans for the future of the village ambitious.
You can read the full 2021 report on the Tidy Towns website here and you can access all historical reports here.