1. Community – Your Planning and Involvement.
Connections need to be forged and maintained between our volunteers and the local community, businesses, schools, groups, and support organisations, to leverage each other's abilities and achieve common goals.
Competition Guide Notes:
Marks are awarded for the overall quality of the Entry Form, town/village map and appropriateness of backup material submitted with your entry. Other key issues are the participation of the local community, businesses, schools and youth in general; working partnerships with local civic agencies; works carried out and appropriate projects completed; existence of an achievable updated TidyTowns Plan. Consideration will be given to social inclusion, whole of community approach, the role of volunteers and new residents in activities.
2023-24 Summary
Overview
We are delighted to have engaged with so many members of the community in local actions:
We appreciate that the Old Johnstown Village Community Group entered Tidy Towns and wish to represent the area in the Villages Category and therefore we have detached and separated their area from ours. We will of course collaborate and support any initiatives that they wish to work on collectively.
Our social media, website, interactions with other groups, and general street presence have helped raise our profile and gain new support, suggestions, and engagement in community actions.
Engaged the local schools in biodiversity talks, litter picks, weeding, growing sunflowers, and supporting the homeless.
Engaged with Ben Malone (biodiversity officer with Meath County Council
We have deepened our connection with Wild About Navan and aim to develop projects within our local area.
Ecologist Fintan Denbar surveyedand produced our new Community Biodiversity Action Plan which we are now reviewing and will communicate with the wider public before engaging groups to participate in actioning.
A new connection was made to the Lighthouse Church and the plan is to develop this into regular monthly action events.
Support from local charities and community groups has helped us support the less fortunate within our community.
Our connections with Council departments and government organisations has developed with our aim to work together to promote common initiatives and actions.
Engaging directly with residents association to encourage tree planting, stop weedkiller use, and to implement alternative lawn maintenance.
Actions
(M) Website
www.JohnstownTidyTowns.ie launched in 2023 continues to host a record of our achievements, plans, and aspirations for the environment and community.
(M) Facebook
Our Facebook page gains the most local attention and is largely shared through the Community Group Page Navan South Communities Unite (5,700 members), this would explains why our follower numbers don't increase greatly.
Statistics 10 May 2023 to 7th May 2024
1,455 Followers, an increase of 100
Posts Reached 37,135
4,500 Page Visits 329% increase
(M) AGM & Volunteer Of The Year
Hosted at O'Briens, Old Johnstown Village we offered congratulations to our volunteer of the year 2023 Peter Heylin.
'Peter has been a volunteer with JTT since our establishment in 2015. Because of Peter's consistent efforts as a volunteer over the years he has contributed greatly to the many awards won by the group in both the Pride of Place and Tidy Towns competitions.'
Cllr Alan Lawes
Chairman of JTT
(M) Pride of Place Awards
Our volunteers are praised and receive the Navan Municipal District Large Town Award 2023.
(M) Bag Pack
The first Bag Pack since Covid and Feb 2020 we returned to Smith's SuperValu, Johnstown Shopping Centre, to help raise our profile in the community.
(N) Green School Talk
From Coláiste Na Mí
'Today our Green Schools Committee welcomed Councillor Alan Lawes, Ben Malone (biodiversity officer with Meath County Council) and Robin (Johnstown Tidy Towns) to our school.
Our guests spoke to students on all things biodiversity. During this visit students learned about pesticides and the effects that they can have on our wildlife and water. Huge thanks to Alan, Ben and Robin for taking time out of their busy schedule to come in and chat with us. '
(N) Student Volunteers
From Coláiste Na Mí
Today was a day of action for our Coláiste Na Mí Green School Committee and Coordinator Iníon Elliot!
Together, they took charge of cleaning up the road leading to our school. Our incredible students worked hard, scraping weeds to prevent harmful pesticides from being sprayed and protecting our water from contamination. Plus, they did a fantastic job clearing away litter, making our environment cleaner and healthier for everyone.
A huge shoutout to Alan A Lawes and Robin from Johnstown Tidy Towns, as well as Tuscany Pizzeria, for their incredible support. They treated us to a delicious well-deserved lunch after our efforts!
A massive thank you to everyone involved for making today both productive and enjoyable. Let's keep working together for a greener, cleaner future!
(N) School Thrift Shop
From Coláiste Na Mí Secondary School
Huge shoutout to our amazing school community for rallying behind our recent thrift shop event! Thanks to your generous support, we were able to make it a huge success. All proceeds are going to SVP, making a real difference in the lives of those in need.
A special round of applause to the incredible students of LCA 2 for their dedication and hard work! From organising to sorting, bagging, folding, and even building rails, your efforts were truly outstanding. We not only made great memories but also had a blast doing it together. Let's keep spreading kindness and making a positive impact in our community!
(N) Monthly Cleaning Blitz Day
The first Saturday morning in May was the inaugural monthly action day event. A team effort from members of The Lighthouse Church achieved 80 manhours of work from 20+ volunteers attending to litter pick, weeding, and painting over graffiti.
Going forward we plan to host a community action day on either the first Friday or Saturday of every month to show their pride in our area.
(M) Plastic Waste Avoided?
Local Councillor Elections are expected June 7th and in 2019 and 2020 we successfully prevented the streetscape being littered with political plastic posters.
We have asked all potential candidates not to erect street posters along Johnstown's Green Km. This looks like a challenging year with dozens of posters erected on the night of May 7th despite our request.
(M) Stop Weedkiller Use
In 2022 we were unsuccessful in obtaining a grant to purchase and operate the Foamstream System but the Council offered assistance collecting the weed debris using their road sweeper. This significantly increased the efficiency and reduced the manhours required to clear 4km of road and 10km of edging during 2023.
Now in 2024 the Council has offered to maintain the edging along the Green Km stretch using a new brush system that could mean fewer action days manually removing the weeds.
(N) St Brigid's Day, Navan
Helping to promote local crafts people Johnstown Tidy Towns sponsored 2 table stalls for Chunks of Art and artist Monika Hajcsar at the St. Brigid's Day Festival on 5th February in the centre of Navan.
(N) Johnstown Community Biodiversity Action Plan
in 2023 we were delighted receive a €5,000 grant from The Community Foundation For Ireland to create a Community Biodiversity Action Plan for Johnstown.
A series of surveys throughout 2023 by ecologist Fintan Damer highlighted species of flora and fauna and opportunities to support biodiversity. The report has now been produced and we are discussing a plan of action to communicate and implement the proposals.
(N) Heritage Keepers
Following on from the 5-week Heritage Keepers workshops in Feb, hosted by The Heritage Council and Burrenbeo Trust and supported by the Community Foundation of Ireland, and working with Wild About Navan we hosted the first community event of 'Gather The Tribe' at the Solstice Theatre.
Over 40 attended the short talks, a shared lunch, and conversations to stimulate and inspire our community we shared local expertise and knowledge and learned from each other.
The outcome was to organise future events including nature talks and walks and attendees were invited to join the Wild About Navan mailing list to keep the new network connected.
(N) Water Heritage Day
Following the success of the Riverside clean in April 2023 we participated in the 2nd event headed by Wild About Navan August 20th. We also envisage hosting local riverside clean-up and guided walks once we've formulated our Community Biodiversity Action Plan. Thanks to Meath County Council Local Authority Waters Programme and The Heritage Council for their support.
We participated in the 3 events organised by #WildAboutNavan:
The Big Boyne clean-up along the Ramparts
Adults and kids alike helped haul 3 trolleys and 30 bags of rubbish from along our walkway. Most of the litter was composed of bottles, single use plastic, and vapes.
The Ramparts riverside nature walk
Botanist Sinéad took us for a wander to learn more about what wildlife we can find along the Ramparts.
The River Boyne Guided Cycle with Navan Cycling Initiative
NCI and local geologist extraordinaire Dr Robbie Meehan took us on a relaxed bike ride to learn about the geodiversity of the Boyne Valley right here in Navan.
(M) Delay First Lawn Cut
Delaying the first lawn cut of the year isn't easy when Easter keeps moving around and when many decide to revisit their gardens and children want to play outside. Several estate lawns did however benefit and the display of dandelions again turned Johnstown yellow.
(M) 'No Mow May'
For the 3rd year running, and in collaboration with Wild About Navan, we advocate 'No Mow May' followed by 'Let it Bloom June', and finally 'Grow High July'.
(M) 'Don't Mow Yet'
We're delighted that Meath County Council followed through with the 2023 plan to allow certain verges and roundabouts to grow the grass longer than usual, wildflowers appeared, and a better habitat for biodiversity was created. It allowed residents to see the stark aesthetic contrast between commercial marketing and what Mother Nature intended.
Although we haven't seen any street signs we hope to see this initiative continue and we fully support utilising the Green Km Initiative to demonstrate what we think the future should look like.
(M) Sunflower Trail
Following the success of 2022 we took the opportunity to expand and proposed over 50 sites with two routes. The 4 local school students participated in germinating and growing flowers for the public spaces. The local 'Grow Shop' generously donated over 40 compost bags and 10 local residents agreed to germinate an extra 500 seeds in their own gardens for sharing amongst their neighbours' front gardens to fill in the 'trail gaps'.
The weather ultimately decided the success of the trail and the germination of 1400 sunflowers was severly hampered by the very wet and unseasonal cool weather. The small plants were more susceptible to hungry slugs (we didn't encourage slug pellets) and coupled with the slow plant growth the final crop was less than 20%. This resulted in only 16 display sites.
The 2024 trail has been abandoned due to a number of key volunteers being unavailable during critical months of May, June, and early July. We hope to have the sunflower trail re-established in 2025.
Proposed 2023 Trail
(N) Helping Neighbouring Groups
Volunteers donated their time and some of our sunflowers to help The Courtyard Flower Hill Residents Group and their Pride of Place Entry.
(M) Soccer in the Park
The second year that Johnstown FC successfully hosted a children's soccer event in the Johnstown's People's Park.
(M) Food Poverty
We continue to support families experiencing food poverty with weekly deliveries by volunteers within the Navan area. Out volunteers are supporting Core Ireland and the Athboy People Who Care Share group.
(M) Christmas Shoebox and Food Hampers
Thanks to all who helped make Christmas a little more special for 72 homeless families and their 125 children across Meath today.
Thanks to Core Ireland Athboy's People Who Share Care Group Malones Navan Smiths SuperValu Loreto Secondary School, St. Michael's, Navan Versatile Bathrooms & Tiles Meath County Council. Fr Mc Verry HUB Sharon Lynch and the Meath Civil Defence.
Gingerbread Maker
What made this year's Christmas a little bit more special was that people like Ciara Carroll a staff member with @smiths_supervalu_navan went the extra mile and personally baked 700 gingerbread men to add to the many treats and goodies given to the children.
Christmas Party
The Meath Chronicle provided a great write-up on our plans to host a party to spread some cheer to families and individuals spending Christmas homeless or in temporary accommodation.
(M) Navan Outreach
Volunteers continue to support those homeless and those camping on the streets, or wasteland, in Navan. A report is being compiled and sent to the Council for a long-term solution to be found.
Warm Clothing Donation
A huge thank you to Janette and her fellow workers in @penneysnavan for donating a huge amount of warm winter clothing to the homeless.
Jackei and Paul of The Joshua Project on Kennedy Road in Navan who are serving Christmas Dinner to the homeless community, have agreed to hand out the clothing on Christmas Day.
We're interested in supporting theTús initiative.
The TÚS initiative is a community work placement scheme providing short-term quality work experience opportunities for unemployed people. The work opportunities are to the benefit of the community and are provided by community and voluntary organisations in both urban and rural areas.
Having made enquiries in March 2023 we are eligible and are looking into the requirements to make something positive happen.
