2024 Adjudication Report Mark 39 out of 50
We are delighted to report that the houses and residential areas in Murroe looked very well during our visit and it was clear that residents had worked hard to ensure that their properties and their estates looked their best on adjudication day. Cois na Coille was a highlight with its attractive name signage, abundant entrance planting, trimmed grass verges and lovely mature trees. Ros Fearna was also impressive and the Meadow looked lovely with its well maintained roads, footpaths and central green. The work undertaken to Gilmartin Park by the residents was appreciated as the entrance planting, name stone and neat grass areas looked great. Noting that the extensive Garranbawn estate has undergone a recent clean up, we are pleased to report that it looked very well maintained with its attractive name stone (set on the natural stone entrance walls), mature trees and entrance shrub planting.
2023 Adjudication Report Mark 37 out of 50
Cois na Coille has the most attractive entrance with the green, planted beds & mature trees. Gilmartin Park was a delight to walk through with the green areas well planted with clusters of trees & shrubs thus presenting mini oases for wildlife & a stunning display of roses softening the long block wall. Both of these estates should showcase their landscaping to the newer estates to demonstrate what can be achieved over time.
Ros Fearna residents should be very proud of the presentation of their estate. There is significant work involved in maintaining cobble & kerb edging.
The mature birch trees & well-maintained green spaces soften the built environment.
The entrance to Glenstal Gate Estate would benefit from attention. From previous reports, it seems that the residents are waiting for the damaged piers to be repaired by Limerick County Council. Has there been any update provided by the council? The natural meadow with the verges cut alongside the paths presents the most stunning picture to any visitor to the estate. One can imagine how much fun children would have with paths mown through for play!
Garanbawn estate has a wonderful green area bordering the public road. Some of the shrubs in the beds on the right hand side would benefit from pruning & weeding to present them to their best. With the amount of green space available to many of the new estates, it may be worthwhile introducing them to the concept of Pocket Forests as referenced earlier.
2022 Adjudication Report Mark 36 out of 50
It is great that you have some committee members from the residential estates of which you have many. We admired the flanking stone wall entrance at Garanbawn with trees behind the wall. It is a large open plan estate, and we see plenty of scope for adding plants to front gardens and planting more trees in the open spaces to enhance the estate overall. Gilmartin Park is a large estate which has access onto two roads. There are several planting schemes on the open spaces, and we admired the established trees in roadside margins and in groups on the open spaces. In Ros Fearna estate, where we saw several fine specimens of trees, we were disappointed to see that birch trees on the open space for house numbers 15 – 39 were badly pruned. These trees looked well in Google street view images and we are mystified as to why the tops were removed – something that is a very bad practice that leads to the decline of the trees and in the short term extensive branching at lower levels. We suggest the badly pruned trees be removed and replaced next winter. Just around the corner, we observed five plant containers sitting beside a wall. They contribute nothing in terms of enhancement and the plants are very poor quality.
Guideline for plant containers is to use them only where planting directly into the ground is not possible. In this case, we advise the planting of climbing plants such as ivy which in time will soften the impact of the wall. It only requires small planting pits to be made into the footpath about 2 metres apart, fill them with soil and the plants will do the rest. Containers should not in themselves attract any notice – instead, the plants should grow over the sides. It is better to have fewer well planted containers than a large number in which the quality of plants is inferior. Empty or poorly planted containers are less effective than no plant container at all. In Glenstal Gate estate, we noted the damaged piers that you have asked Limerick County Council to repair. What surprised us here was the two lines of established trees – hornbeams in the front gardens and Crimson King maple trees on the open space. It is most unusual to plant a line of trees with copper coloured foliage – usually one or two such specimens are used as a focal point in a design. The hornbeams are growing very well and have a pyramidal habit which to some extent will restrict them from spreading. However, these trees which are sometimes used as hedges respond very well to trimming the side branches to prevent them from spreading further. We have seen this done very successfully elsewhere where they resemble vertical hedges, and suggest you might like to try it out on one or two trees to see the effect
2021 Adjudication Report Mark 36 out of 50
The imposing monument which adorns the front of your Tidy Towns Plan is in memory of two local men who lost their lives during the War of Independence. You leave it ‘unadorned’ except to mow the grass and paint the black and white surrounding kerbs. We agree completely with this approach as often we see such structures smothered in flowering shrubs etc which detract from their solemnity. You have projects planned in this category which you hope to have completed in 2021 or 2022 including building work at Spar / Murroe Wood Park?, repair work to the Muintir na Tíre Hall, painting work to the Old Post Office including a gable mural, the installation of a bicycle rack made by a local metal worker and the purchase and installation of additional flower pots. Don’t forget to include these in future Application Forms along with before and after photos. The progress photos of the mural on the Post Office wall looks good … next year’s adjudicator will see the finished work. Will you add a seat as suggested by the 2019 adjudicator at the grotto in the church? It would probably be well used by members of the community who wish to sit and reflect. Don’t clutter the pump area – in addition to the pump you have two wheels, three planters and two planting beds. As Mies van der Rohe said ‘Less is More’. 45 32 53 16 36 31 Tidy Towns Competition 2021 Adjudication Report Centre: County: Category: Ref: Mark: Date(s): 301 Maximum Mark Community – Your Planning and Involvement Streetscape & Public Places Green Spaces and Landscaping Nature and Biodiversity in your Locality Sustainability – Doing more with less Tidiness and Litter Control Residential Streets & Housing Areas Approach Roads, Streets & Lanes 60 60 60 50 50 90 50 50 TOTAL MARK 470 301 Community – Your Planning and Involvement / An Pobal - Pleanáil agus Rannpháirtíocht: Streetscape & Public Places / Sráid-Dreach & Áiteanna Poiblí: Green Spaces and Landscaping / Spásanna Glasa agus
2019 Adjudication Report Mark 35 out of 50
Many of the houses in the village and surrounding estates had been freshly painted and looked very presentable. We can see that those living in Murroe are proud of their village. There were neatly tended gardens with colourful floral perennial beds in some houses which were alive with bees and butterflies. On the outskirts there are some very fine farmhouses with neat yards and outbuildings. We admire the entrance to The Meadow (Ros Fearna) – we suggest carefully painting the name in white as it is difficult to read at present. This should also be done to the name signs within the estate. The open green areas in the estates were well presented – Gilmartin Park has a great display of rose along what would otherwise be a long blank wall while the planting beds in Garanbawn were neatly tended and full of colour. We noted that many of the former thatched ‘Rent an Irish Cottage’ houses now have slated roofs and are used as permanent homes
2018 Adjudication Report Mark 35 out of 50
I loved the older residential houses in Murroe which make for lovely aesthetics. You have a lot of new estates that appear to be improving as time goes by, and it is encouraging to see that they have residents associations. Glenstal Gate has good young trees and nice green open space. Garrabawn is an extensive estate with very nice houses, good greens and trees. Others to impress were Meadow Estate, Cois na Coile and Gilmartin Park. The approach roads have splendid once off houses with most of them having impressive displays of trees, shrubs, flowers and lawns. The gate lodge at Glenstal is great old historical stone structure. The amenity park is a lovely facility and so well kept with lots of children in the lovely playground. There are great opportunities for the youth of Murroe with the outstanding GAA facilities
2017 Adjudication Report Mark 34 out of 50
It is a great start to read that the estates have organised themselves with their own estate association. It is a symptom of a strong community bond. All of the estates were visited. Open space is amply provided for in most cases with beautiful shrubberies a feature in most of those estates. The adjudicator feels that house dwellers in the estates should be encouraged to plant more shrubs or flowers or hanging baskets as some have done here and there. The commercial area in Garranbawn seems to be struggling with its identity as yet. There are a couple of estates that could do with your encouragement. Abbeyowney is distinguished by that fine piece of, to me, abstract sculpture. Lovely. There is a wall in Ros Fearna that would benefit from ivy and or pyracantha planting. Let them see what has been done with a wall in Cois na Coille or a wall in Gilmartin Park that has roses growing up along it. Main Street is also quite residential with many of the residences contributing, an echo from earlier house building design. Once off housing all along the approach roads is very well presented and enhance their surroundings.