The winners of the 2024 Tidy Towns Local Authority Pollinator Award have been announced.
The Pollinator Award has run since 2016 as a Special Award in the annual Supervalu Tidy Towns awards. It is administrated by the local authority Heritage and Biodiversity Officer network and the National Biodiversity Data Centre.
The aim of the award is to encourage and reward pollinator-friendly actions by Tidy Towns groups in line with the recommendations of the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan. Each winner is awarded a prize of €1,000.
With an overall winner, award for best newcomers, and two winners per region, there are plenty of opportunities for success in this award.
Overall winner for 2024: Sneem Tidy Towns. Co. Kerry
Sneem Tidy Towns in Kerry are the winners of this year’s Tidy Towns Pollinator Award. The group displayed exceptional work for pollinators in every category, from creating networks of naturally-restored meadows, to planting native pollinator-friendly trees, creating mini orchards, and eliminating pesticides.
During No Mow May this year, an orchid appeared in Sneem’s Garden of the Senses where the grass had been left to grow for the month of May. Because of this, the group have got agreement to keep reducing mowing and see what else appears in the future!
The work of Sneem Tidy Towns is underpinned by a deep understanding of their local biodiversity as laid out in their Biodiversity Action Plan. Their ‘whole-town’ approach that recognises the importance of managing habitats of all sizes to create a network of pollinator-friendly sites around Sneem.
Best Newcomer: Ballymun Tidy Towns
Ballymun Tidy Towns made an excellent first entry to the Pollinator Award, showing how valuable urban areas can be for biodiversity. Their work has included collaborating with landowners and Dublin City Council to create a network of long and short-flowering meadows, planting trees and pollinator-friendly bulbs, surveying hedgerows, and identifying mining bee nesting sites.
Grounded in the recommendations of their Biodiversity Action Plan, the group take a collaborative approach to their work, encouraging residents to get involved in biodiversity action by taking part in No Mow May, and participating in a network of community groups that seeks to preserve a wildlife corridor from Ballymun to Glasnevin.
Ballymun are off to a strong start in this award – we can’t wait to see what they do next!
Regional Pollinator Award winners
Congratulations to all eight winners of the regional awards. Each of these applications was excellent and demonstrated a huge range of actions for biodiversity. Here are all the winners, and the highlights of their work.
Midlands & East
Large Town: Raheny Tidy Village Group, Co. Dublin
Last year’s overall winners, Raheny Tidy Village Group have had another successful year managing their urban Dublin neighbourhood for pollinators. Their recent work includes encouraging a local business to create ‘pollinator islands’ of short-flowering meadow in the Minimal Waste Grocery garden, and working with the local girls’ secondary school to plant native trees and hedgerow plants in the church grounds.
Small Town: Athboy Tidy Towns, Co. Meath
Athboy Tidy Towns have frequently excelled in this competition, particularly when it comes to eliminating pesticides. They have gone above and beyond to not only eliminate pesticide use in their own group, but encouraging other members of the community to do the same. The group have taken bold steps to trial alternatives such as Foamstream, and encourage appreciation of native wildflowers like Dandelions.
South East
Large Town: Clonmel Tidy Towns, Co. Tipperary
Clonmel are no strangers to success in the Pollinator Award, and once again have shown they are leading the way pollinator-friendly actions, particularly when it comes to meadow management. Their crowning achievement is the development of a town-wide grass management and pollinator corridor, creating a clear network of areas where mowing is reduced and wildflowers are allowed to grow.
Small Town: Kilsheelan Tidy Towns, Co. Tipperary
Kilsheelan have taken a thorough, methodical approach to managing the town for pollinators. Their work has included establishing many areas of naturally-restored meadows, tree planting along the Blueway, and planting a significant number of pollinator-friendly bulbs which will ensure a source of pollen and nectar early in the year. Their stunning pollinator-friendly beds are perfect examples of how many actions can be enjoyed by humans and bees!
South & Mid West
Large Town: There were no entries in this category this year. We strongly encourage any Tidy Towns groups in this category to apply in 2025.
Small Town: Sneem Tidy Towns. Co. Kerry
Sneem are winners in this category and the overall winners of the Pollinator Award in 2024. For an overview of their work, see the summary at the top of this page.
North West & West:
Large Town: Oranmore Tidy Towns, Co. Galway
Oranmore submitted a highly impressive application, which demonstrated many positive actions including community orchards. In partnership with Active in Age Oranmore, the Tidy Towns launched the ‘Dispersed Community Orchard Project’ for National Tree Week in 2023. The group planted native apple trees in several housing estates to create an orchard and pollinator corridor. These trees are looked after by residents, and plans are afoot to grow the dispersed orchard by planting trees in more estates.
Small Town: Belmullet Tidy Towns/ Baile Slachtmhar Bhéal an Mhuirthead, Co. Mayo
Belmullet Tidy Towns have been doing exceptional work protecting the Great Yellow Bumblebee. They have brought the whole community along in their efforts to help this rare pollinator, which has recently resulted in a series of community workshops, creating new wildlife corridors with local schools, and the launch of a new bilingual children’s book ‘An Bhumbóg Mhór Bhuí ar Strae’.
Highly Commended Towns
The quality of applications this year was so high in 2024 that eight further Tidy Towns were highly commended for their work for pollinators. These towns are:
Ardmore Tidy Towns
Balbriggan Tidy Towns
Buncrana Tidy Towns
Castlegregory Tidy Towns
Cavan Tidy Towns
Dalkey Tidy Towns
Rathmore Tidy Towns
Tullahought Tidy Towns
Congratulations to all winners and highly commended groups!
Kate Chandler, Communities & Engagement Pollinator Officer at the National Biodiversity Data Centre said:
“The quality of the Tidy Towns Pollinator Award applications was astonishing this year. We’d delighted with the work taking place in communities across the country to help our struggling wild pollinators. The standard of applications was so high, eight further towns were ‘highly commended’ in addition to the seven winners.
We were blown away by the hard work, creativity, and leadership of these Tidy Towns groups. They are a shining example of how communities of any size can play a crucial role in helping reverse pollinator declines, bringing together different corners of their community behind a shared goal. It’s great to see more Tidy Towns putting away the lawnmowers to help wildflowers grow, eliminating pesticides, and even embracing the humble Dandelion – one of our most precious native wildflowers and a vital food source for wild bees.
Across the island of Ireland, pollinator numbers are still in decline. But we are seeing improvements in local populations where actions are being taken to help them. This gives us hope – the hard work of Tidy Towns groups can make a real difference to reversing pollinator decline. Congratulations to all the winners and highly commended groups in this year’s Pollinator Award, and a huge thank you to everyone who applied – from us and the bees!”
On behalf of the Local Authority Pollinator Award committee, we thank the Tidy Towns Unit for the opportunity to administrate this special award alongside the Heritage and Biodiversity Officer network. We look forward to supporting the work of communities in the future and would like to congratulate and thank all the winners and applicants for their great work for pollinators.
If you are interested in helping pollinators in your community, take a look at the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan guidelines for community groups. This free document includes evidence-based actions for pollinators to suit every community.
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