Litter situation 'disgusting'

The old bugbear of litter in Kilcullen again took up considerable discussion time at the most recent meeting of Kilcullen Community Action, and criticism was levelled both at Kildare County Council and school pupils in the town.



The matter came up from a letter written to KCA by Cathy Flynn of the Heritage Centre, who noted that she had 'received abuse' when she remonstrated with young people for dropping litter at the back of the centre during lunchtime.

There was unanimity at the meeting that Cathy Flynn shouldn't have to make any such approaches, but equally there was again frustration that there seems to be no adequate way of dealing with the litter problem.

Noel Clare said the pupils at the Cross & Passion College were asked on a daily basis not to litter.

J J Warren suggested that the Litter Warden be asked to give a week of his time to 'blitz' the town and hand out fines.

When it was pointed out that there seemed to be no mechanism whereby children could be fined for litter offences, he suggested that the Garda be asked to chastise any young people found throwing litter.

He then broadened the criticism by wondering how in other towns in the area there were local authority operatives cleaning up 'before people were up in the morning'.



Celia Travers noted that she had been in Athy the day before and it was 'absolutely spotless'. It was suggested that because it was a 'heritage' town, and also had its own Town Council, that made the difference in providing an adequate cleaning service.

Describing the situation in Kilcullen as 'disgusting', Celia Travers said it 'can't be allowed to go on'.



Tony Gahan agreed, adding that it was equally bad on all the approach roads to Kilcullen.

The cleaning operations by Kildare County Council operatives also came up for comment again, with several of those present noting that their brief seemed extremely restricted.

"They will just pick litter that's actually on the footpaths," J J Warren said. "They won't pick up anything that has blown into the gutter."



It was also noted that the operatives wouldn't clean places such as the riverbank area behind the Heritage Centre, nor take rubbish from the decorative flower boxes maintained by the Tidy Towns Committee.

Orla O'Neill suggested that the community should undertake a photographic project, showing 'before and after' following a Council cleanup.



The photograph above, supplied by Noel Clare, shows the bus stop area in Kilcullen. "It was taken on March 3, after watching the same stretch for four days without any attempt to pick up litter," he says. "It was still much the same one week later."

Brian Byrne.