Portlaoise Tidy Towns wins prestigous prize for planting 40,000 trees in Laois county town

Portlaoise Tidy Towns has come away with a prestigious award for a remarkable green project that should benefit the Laois county town for generations.

The voluntary group won a special national award in the SuperValu National Tidy Towns award which took place in Dublin on October 1.

Portlaoise TidyTowns won a prize for €1,000 for the tree project which is party of the overall Town in a Garden initiative which is supported by Laois County Council. The award was sponsored by the National Tree Council of Ireland.

The volunteers marked a major milestone in February, 2024, when the 30,000th tree was planted through the project launched in 2019 when a 10,000 target set. With 2024 coming to an end the total planted has reached 40,000.

Vincent Booth is Portlaoise Tidy Towns Chairman. He has been involved since the start and believes the win is significant recognition of what's been achieved so far.

"It justifies or hard work and collaboration with Laois County Council and other groups such as the HSE green team in replanting native trees. It rewards people for their efforts and gives us hoe for the future," he said.

Mr Booth said trees have been planted in a variety of locations from St Fintan's Hospital to the Junction 17 National Enterprise Park to housing estates and town parks and along roads.

Mr Booth paid tribute to Portlaoise man Brian Gaynor of Trees on the Land and Michael Buckley at Laois County Council for their work to advance the project.

The Chairman said trees will continue to be planted in the town as party of implementing their biodiversity plan for the community.

Mr Booth, who travelled to Dublin for the national awards ceremony, said there was interest from Balbriggan in replicating the Portlaoise project in the north Co Dublin community.

The hardworking Portlaoise team also collected another Gold medal and was placed third in the Laois County section of this year's awards.