News
BRAY WIN AS CLEANEST TOWN IN IRELAND A BOOST TO BUSINESS
Jan 25 2010
A significant business boost is expected for Bray, Co Wicklow, following its selection as Ireland’s Cleanest Town in the annual IBAL (Irish Business Against Litter) survey.
The seaside town is now hoping that the positive news will encourage new industry and big name retailers to locate in Bray and lead to an increase in tourist numbers.
The win coincides with a rebranding drive for the Co Wicklow town – population 30,000 plus - which aims to exploit its economic and tourism assets and bring in jobs as well as boosting commercial activity.
As part of this initiative, the Mayor of Bray, Clr John Ryan, established an Economic Think Tank to focus on economic development and job creation.
It includes top-level local business people such as JJ O'Dwyer, former HR Director with the ESB; Paul Blunnie , Head of Takeda Pharmaceuticals; Barry McCleary, CEO, Megazyme; Mary Lord, Head of Research and Development, Oriflame; Lorraine Sweeney, Hotelier and Former SFA Chairperson; Billy McCann, Director ESB and Tesco and former Partner PWC; Pat Ivory, IBEC; and Garry Cullen , former CEO Aer Lingus and Aer Arrann.
The group has been tasked with a clear aim of making recommendations to Bray Town Council by April on ways in which Bray can attract and nurture business and promote job creating sustainable economic development.
“The idea is to take a strategic view of Bray, what the town needs in order to develop and encourage new industry and development and put in place changes that will have an impact in say five years time”, said Mayor Ryan.
Already the group has met with the IDA and Enterprise Ireland to see how Foreign Director Investment can be promoted along with representatives of major retailers such as Marks and Spencer, Penneys and others to explore what they need in order to set up in Bray
Mayor Ryan sees the choice of Bray as the Cleanest Town in Ireland as a significant boost to Bray Town Council’s endeavours. He added: “If you have the tag of a dirty town it won’t encourage people to come but now that the word is out about Bray’s attraction we can use that to sell the message that Bray is a good place to do business in and to visit.”
He said Bray has already had significant success with the town’s Summer Fest, Jazz Festival and St Patrick’s Festival while they were waiting on a Bord Pleanala decision as regards the Pizarro Town Centre development on the old golf club lands.
Mayor Ryan explained that the Cleanest Town accolade was secured through a huge community effort which saw the Town Council combining with business, voluntary and other interests to improve how Bray looks.
He stated: “We had a rejuvenation committee headed by Dermod Dwyer, Chairman of the National Conference Centre, which implemented a programme to upgrade shopfronts and place irrigation systems and flowers throughout the town. The Litter Task Force worked with businesses and schools to change peoples’ habits and with Bray Coastcare to organise monthly clean-ups.
“The Council officials and members have also made this a top priority and we have introduced a monthly walk around the town with the Town Clerk, Town Engineer and councillors to highlight issues that need to be resolved and have taken a Zero Tolerance approach to weeds, graffiti and litter.
The on-the-ground Council staff have also shown a huge commitment, energy and passion to turn around Bray in this IBAL survey and we owe a lot of today’s success to them. We have also used the Derelict Sites Notice tool whereby we notify the owners of land and premises that we consider derelict to clean it up within three months or they are fined three per cent of the total value of the site on an annual basis. This allowed us to put pressure on developers to clean up very prominent sites in the town.”
Representatives from Bray Town Council celebrate Bray’s selection by IBAL as the Cleanest Town in Ireland. L-R Christine Flood, Town Clerk; Eddie Sheehy, Wicklow County Manager; Des O'Brien, Town Manager; Clr John Ryan, Mayor of Bray; Dr Tom Cavanagh, Chairman of IBAL; Triona Irving, Administrative Officer; Sean O'Neill, Town Engineer and Ralph Murray, Town Overseer.
