Judging

Judging – how is the competition judged?

Assessment of participating towns is carried out by an independent panel of adjudicators appointed by the Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht.

Judging is anonymous and takes place during the months of June, July and August each year.

Each entrant is assessed under eight criteria with a total of 550 marks available as follows:

What additional information should be provided to judges?

As well as the entry form, judges also rely on additional information supplied by TidyTowns groups – this is why the provision of a clear map is so important. Photographs are also a welcome addition for judges and a 3/5 year plan should also be included.

Participants can specify sub-areas of special interest for adjudicators to look at, but full adjudication covers the whole area and approach roads. This is normally defined as within the welcome signs to an area or, where none exist, within the relevant low-speed limit signs.

In more rural or urban areas, where boundaries may not be clear, the minimum adjudication area is approximately one kilometre in all directions from the centre of the area as local geography and adjoining areas permit.

As a result of the judge’s assessment, several entrants are identified as potential candidates for winning the overall title. These centres then receive a second-round adjudication. Decisions on winners are made by the full panel of independent adjudicators only.

Once the winners have been announced at the National awards ceremony, reports of all assessments are published on-line on this site.

We hold records on entries since 1996 – they are all available here.