Galway City Council is supporting a new community-led ‘Ballybane Tidy Towns’ group to enhance the local environment and mobilise residents from across Ballybane to engage in regular clean-ups. All are welcome to get involved, with more information available from the Environmental Department in Galway City Council.
The newly formed group will focus on litter picks every Friday and Saturday. A dedicated WhatsApp group will help the community identify litter blackspots and illegal dumping and coordinate future meet ups. Galway City Council will support the group’s work and will provide supplies for the clean ups.
Mayor of the City of Galway, Cllr. Mike Cubbard commented, "This is a fantastic opportunity to build on the excellent work on-going in Ballybane and the surrounding areas. There is a brilliant community spirit here and a real sense of pride of place among residents. I have no doubt that people will get behind this initiative in great numbers.”
Local resident and community leader Donal Lynch commented, “This is a great opportunity for people to take pride in their area and make Ballybane a beautiful place to live, from outside our doorstep to street by street”.
This initiative builds directly upon recent improvements by Galway City Council to tackle litter and illegal dumping in Ballybane Neighbourhood Village and aims to widen the catchment area for community involvement. Nationally, hundreds of thousands of people have participated in local initiatives of every shape and size over the last fifty years through their local Tidy Towns groups.
With the 2026 Irish Businesses Against Litter (IBAL) report on the horizon, the partnership between the Council and the Tidy Towns group is an on-going commitment to supporting the community in Ballybane working to combat litter and illegal dumping. This approach correlates with studies which have shown that spaces that are cared for and monitored discourage further littering.
The set up of the new Tidy Towns group follows a recent workshop with Galway City Council staff and stakeholders in the local community to set out a path to combat litter and dumping hotspots over a 12-month project. Work is already underway to transform a local spot previously plagued by illegal dumping into a family friendly inclusive sensory garden, with a wider programme of action including household waste collection service inspections, CCTV in dumping hotspots, checkpoints for waste operators operating illegally, and improved lighting and sightlines.
Deputy Mayor of the City of Galway, Cllr Alan Cheevers expressed high hopes for the project, noting that the group is modelled after the highly successful Doughiska Tidy Towns initiative. He said, "The success we’ve seen in Doughiska is a blueprint for what we can achieve here," said Cllr Cheevers. "I am incredibly excited to see the community in Ballybane take ownership of their environment. By building on that proven model, we can make Ballybane a cleaner and more vibrant place for everyone."
The Ballybane Tidy Towns group is looking for new volunteers, and all are welcome to get involved. To express your interest just text the Ballybane Community Hub number at 087 199 4360.