The village is always spotless.

And tonight, the Ballincollig Tidy Towns crew celebrated being named Ireland’s Tidiest Large Urban Centre and winning the County Award for Cork Southwest at the National Tidy Towns Awards for the eleventh time.

The SuperValu TidyTowns competition began in 1958 and has become Ireland’s best-known sustainable and environmental initiative.

Ballincollig Tidy Towns has a long and distinguished history with the competition. Since its inception in 1965 it has become deeply ingrained in the local community.

Speaking at the awards, Lord Mayor of Cork, Councillor Kieran McCarthy said the Ballincollig team “did the whole city proud”.

“Ballincollig Tidy Towns is a shining example of community spirit, collaboration, perseverance, and civic pride.” he added.

“This achievement is a real team effort. It is testament to the efforts of an army of volunteers who work week-in, week-out on litter picks, environmental projects, floral and landscaping project and much, much more. But also, testament to the collaboration with a whole range of businesses, schools and organisations who support Tidy Towns, including our own City Council teams”.

The judges’ report shows that they were impressed by a busy and bustling town when they visited, by the quality of landscaping and green spaces but also by the significant work being undertaken by the committee on biodiversity and nature and sustainability.