Kenmare, Co Kerry, yesterday won the 2000 Tidy Towns Competition which this year was bigger than ever with more awards and an increase in the prize fund of £25,000 to £78,000.
In a crowded St Patrick's Hall in Dublin Castle, competitors gathered from all over the State for the opening of the envelopes containing the names of the winners.
Kenmare, with a population of 1,400 but with thousands of tourists visiting every year, won the overall prize out of 719 entrants.
As well as winning the overall competition, Kenmare won the Tidiest Small Town prize, the South West Regional award, and last June was awarded the title of Best Kept Town in the all-Ireland competition organised by the Department of the Environment and the Northern Ireland Amenity Council.
Newtowncashel in Co Longford won the Tidiest Village prize just one mark behind the overall winner.
Kilkenny took the title of Tidiest Large Town. Last year's winner, Clonakilty, was awarded a gold medal as the winner in its population category.
This year in the Tidy Towns Competition the new categories of gold, silver and bronze medals were introduced and the £500 SuperValu Endeavour Award, which benefits towns or villages which make the most progress in the competition, was extended from a regional to a county award.
The Minister for the Environment and Rural Development, Mr Dempsey, said the ceremony marked the culmination of a major effort to review, update and strengthen the competition.
"We are fitting out Tidy Towns for the 21st century, introducing changes to enhance its role and relevance in a fast-changing society," he said.
The new medals would provide the communities concerned with an important means of promoting their towns and villages as places to live in, visit and do business in. "In a word it will mark these towns out as centres of excellence," he said.
There were seven gold, eight silver and 16 bronze medal-winners.
The Minister said the prize fund had been increased by almost £25,000 to £78,500 by the sponsorship of SuperValu and would certainly make an impact because it tended to be ploughed back into further improvement projects.
He presented the perpetual trophy and a cheque for £10,000 to the Kenmare committee in the ceremony attended by over 400 representatives of committees.
The new arrangements this year involved the Tidy Towns committees, the Department of the Environment and Rural Development, SuperValu, regional tourism organisations and local authorities.
Overall sponsorship funding of £1.6 million is being provided by SuperValu over the period 2000 to 2002. Taken with funding provided by other sponsors and by the Government, the total investment in the competition during this period will be more than £2 million.
Meanwhile, An Taisce said in a statement yesterday that it had carried out an appraisal of Kenmare which showed that, despite its EU-funded Bord Failte designation status as a Heritage Town, it was seriously and progressively losing its architectural character.
There was no appropriate planning control or design guidance to regulate alterations to buildings. "Its main streets are now a sea of tawdry swing-out plastic windows", An Taisce said.
It called for a reappraisal of the award structure to take into account more environmentally substantive concerns.