A number of changes have been made to the Tidy Towns competition as it approaches its 50th anniversary next year.
The 2007 competition was launched yesterday with a new biodiversity award, a chewing- gum litter award and an Irish language project.
The "Notice Nature" biodiversity award is aimed at towns that have undertaken projects to protect nature or raise public awareness of biodiversity. Some €8,000 has been allocated to this new category.
Special awards will be made to towns tackling the problem of gum litter with an overall €1,000 award and awards in the usual categories.
Chewing gum makes up 32 per cent of all street litter, the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Batt O'Keeffe, said at yesterday's launch.
He said the Irish language would be acknowledged this year with new competitions for Irish language projects, supported by Foras na Gaeilge. This will be in addition to the Gaeltacht award.
Mr O'Keeffe said there was "an unprecedented level of interest from communities" after last year's competition, with 1,500 inquiries to the Tidy Towns website www.tidytowns.ie
Some 700 towns and villages currently participate in the competition but organisers aim to double this by 2008.
The closing date for entries in this year's competition is May 18th and the prize winners will be announced in September.
The competition was established by Bord Fáilte in 1958. SuperValu is to sponsor the event for a further five years.
