Bettystown Tidy Towns (BTT)
As Summer turns into Autumn, it means a change of pace for BTT volunteers. Our Tuesday evening tidies have stopped until the Spring but our Saturday morning meet ups continue year round. The beautiful pollinator gardens: Eastham Corner Garden, Green Gate Garden, the Brook Garden and the Kite Garden have bloomed their best and most have been now been cut back. Seeds have been harvested from the wildflowers and preparations are underway for the display in the gardens next year. And Summer bedding plants have been removed from planters which have been dressed with bark.
Other activities that have kept our volunteers busy in September include litterpicking, clearing pavements, strimming grass and clipping hedges. We are continuing to find many masks during every litterpick. We encourage everyone to always put used disposable face coverings directly into waste bins.
One great group effort this month was clearing out the old redbrick toilet building behind The Kite Garden. It was full of rubbish, junk and weeds but looks much better now after being emptied, weeded, overgrowth cut back and the grass strimmed. Old signage that had been dumped there has now been salvaged and hopefully will be restored and find a new home.
Eastham, Narroways and Piltown Road
A special mention to our volunteers TJ, Simone and Derek who litterpick the Eastham Road, Narroways and Piltown Road on Tuesday mornings. The first clean up resulted in six bags of rubbish but litter in the area has much improved thanks to their time and effort.
Funding
Our thanks to Councillors Tom Behan, Elaine McGinty and Sharon Tolan for their contributions to us from their Council Discretionary Funds. The remaining four Councillors did not even reply to our request for a contribution. We will use these funds to support our maintenance and enhancement works around the town.
Join us
In September, BTT put a call out to Housing Estate and Community Groups on Facebook asking them to help us spread the word about Bettystown Tidy Towns and how to join us. We encouraged groups to:
- Mention BTT to their members
- Include a piece on how to join us in their newsletter
- Share our posts on their social media
BTT wants to enhance the town and community, for residents and visitors. If you would like to be part of this join us, any Saturday morning between 9 and 11am, even for half an hour. Or, if you have a skill or talent that you can bring to our projects, we would love to hear from you. You can contact us through our Facebook page or follow us on Facebook or Instagram @bettystown_tidytowns to keep up to date on what we are doing.