Public must play its part in cleanliness
COUNCIL FUNDS STRETCHED
Wednesday July 22 2009
THE council has called on the public to play its part in avoiding a repeat of the ugly scenes on Fingal's beaches earlier this summer where litter was strewn across the sands.
Last week's council meeting provided councillors with the first opportunity to formally raise the issue with council management since the negative publicity generated by litter problems on Portmarnock, Skerries and beaches on the June bank holiday weekend.
The controversy generated by the issue was indicated by the presence of three separate motions on the council agenda, put down by three councillors from the Malahide/Howth ward. The motions by Cllr Eoghan O'Brien (FF), Cllr Peter Coyle (Lab) and Cllr Cian O'Callaghan (Lab) all called for an explanation for the litter problems and what plans the council was putting in place to avoid a repeat.
The local authority said it 'very much regrets the inconvenience suffered by beach users during the June bank holiday weekend'. The council put the problem down to 'exceptional weather combined with the long weekend' resulting in a very high usage of Fingal beaches.
The Fingal County Council statement on the issue went on: 'People living close to the beaches suffered serious inconvenience from the crowds and they and beach users suffered most especially from the quantity of litter left behind by people in a most irresponsible fashion.'
The council said: 'The coincidence of the fine weather with this council's reduced resources in both finance and manpower has resulted in not being able to clear the litter with anything like the promptness that would have alleviated the accumulation over the three days.'
The local authority has subsequently increased the number of bins provided on its beaches and has 'stretched and re-allocated' manpower to effect more regular emptying of the bins.
But, the council says, it is 'beyond the capacity of the most well resourced councils to deal with, for example, behaviour such as deliberately breaking bottles into the sand where children may be playing innocently within a few short hours.'
The statement concludes with an appeal to beach users.
'The council is confident that, were people to deal with their rubbish responsibly by taking it home where no alternative is available, this would enable us to provide an adequate service for the remainder of the summer.'
- John MANNING
