The Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Mr. Phil Hogan, T.D. recently, congratulated Clonegal, Co. Carlow who won a Gold Medal Award and Ballincollig, Co. Cork, who won a Silver Medal Award at the European Entente Florale Competition.
The Minister said that both the village of Clonegal and the town of Ballincollig should be immensely proud of their achievement. The results of the European Entente Florale competition were announced at a special awards ceremony in Nieuwpoort, Belgium on Friday 27th September. Much to the delight of both the Clonegal and Ballincollig contingents present at the ceremony, they were awarded the prestigious gold and silver medals respectively.
Eleven European countries participated in the competition. One town and one village represent each country. The candidates are generally chosen from among the top performers in the relevant categories in national competitions. The competition is judged on all aspects of the towns and villages under inspection, from the quality of road surfaces to the colour schemes of houses and from the planting of open spaces to the standard of public amenities.
Entente Florale, with its special emphasis on the improvement of the quality of life for urban and rural communities in an environmentally sensitive way, echoes the philosophy in Ireland’s own SuperValu Tidy Towns Competition.
