Our next meeting takes place on Thursday 29 January 2004 at Longford Town Council offices at 5.00pm.

NEW YEARS GREETINGS
We wish all our supporters well for 2004. As we learned in 2003, tidiness can have a huge positive impact on the pride of the town and we hope all Longford people will play their part in 2004. For example, wouldn’t it be great if properties, which look poor, were all painted soon.

WEBSITE
We now have a website which can be accessed at www.longfordtidytowns.com . We would stress that the site is not yet fully developed but many of you have been asking for its address. We would like to thank Paul Greally for his excellent work on the site.

LITTER
It is clear that the litter situation has deteriorated over the last month. We highlighted our recommendations on this area many times in 2003 and we are currently waiting to hear what plans both Councils have in connection with litter for 2004.

FUNDRAISING
Our chairman has been working hard on a race night and we ask all those approached to support this important fundraiser for 2004. While we received an allocation of €10,000 from Longford Town Council for 2004, this will only go a small way towards the many things we have to do in 2004. Our total expenditure in 2003 was almost €45,000.

TIDY TOWNS COMPETITION
We received feedback why Longford town has fared so poorly in this competition. The main areas needing attention are the back lanes, the Athlone Approach road and the Strokestown approach road. We hope that the Council’s plans for 2004 include provision for dealing with these issues which had been highlighted in time for the estimates.

WILDLIFE
Wildlife is an important aspect of the tidy towns competition and we would like to develop this aspect of our environment in 2004. We would like to hear from people with an interest in any of the following areas – birds, fish, squirrels, foxes bats or indeed any wildlife in or around Longford Town.