Litter issue protest considered

Kildare County Council is to be officially informed that Kilcullen will not take part in the 2007 National Tidy Towns competition if there's no quick indication from the Council that it will play its part in keeping the town free of litter.

The issue rose its dirty head again at last night's meeting of Kilcullen Community Action, which incorporates the Tidy Towns Committee.

And the meeting confirmed an earlier decision that members would not pick litter in the town this year, as a protest against the lack of Council involvement in the situation.

"It seemed that the more we did, the less the Council did," KCA chairman Kieron Forde reminded the meeting, for the benefit of people who hadn't attended before. "As far as we can see, there is absolutely no effort by the Council in dealing with litter in Kilcullen."

There was a discussion about how best to publicise the stance of the community on the matter, during which the bones of a strategy were developed.

It includes a suggestion from Esther Kiely that 'not a screed' of litter be picked voluntarily in the town between now and the election. "We can show it to all the politicians coming around," she said.

The decision to write officially to the Council about pulling out of the Tidy Towns was on the suggestion of J J Warren, that the Council should be 'told straight out that the community can't continue to take the burden'.

Noel Clare noted that a hope of the Council appointing a full-time street cleaner, as raised last year, was now unlikely because the authority was considering changing responsibility for litter from the Roads Department.

It has three months from the end of March before it is required to report a conclusion, he said, adding that 'it wouldn't make sense' for them to employ a cleaner while this was going on.

Esther Kiely said that the only reason KCA members picked litter last year was because they had hoped that there was going to be somebody appointed.

Siobhan Tutty Bardon said she had picked litter for years, but not much last year because the situation had 'become so demoralising and demotivating'. "I think we'd have no problem doing it if we thought we were providing a supplementary service," she added.

On the repeated approaches which had been made to the Council, J J Warren commented that 'you keep on knocking on doors, and just keep being moved around'.

Clare Boyce made the point that it wasn't just people who were dropping litter. "It's also the lorries, many of them coming through the town with stuff blowing off."

Brian Byrne.