ONE MORE THING: RETAILER SUPERVALU is hoping to extend its 20-year sponsorship of the Tidy Towns competition.

The Department of the Environment last week put the sponsorship out to tender for the period up to 2016, setting a deadline of December 5th for bids. “We are very keen to hang on to it,” SuperValu’s public relations chief Sue Lamon-Diver told me. “We believe the strategy we have is second to none.”

Tidy Towns is believed to cost SuperValu about €450,000 a year. Last time around, AIB, An Post and the National Lottery are believed to have pitched for the sponsorship without success.