Tidy Towns president responds to criticism

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Posted: Wed Dec 22, 2019 2021, 7:30 AM

Last update: Wed 22 Dec 2021, 10:58

Westport President Tidy Towns received a round of applause as she responded to criticism of the city’s standards slippage.

Emphasizing the hours that volunteers spend cleaning towns and villages, if they were to go on strike for a month, “God help you,” she said at a council meeting.

The role of volunteers and all those who support Tidy Towns was praised at a meeting of the Municipal District of Westport – Belmullet, with the five towns and villages that entered the contest in the district upping their scores.

Rhona Chambers had the opportunity to respond to comments made at a previous meeting and explained what a feat Westport has been and continues to be for many decades.

Westport has never lost a point since joining Tidy Towns, making gains every year, and they are currently five points behind the leaders.

Getting the Big City Prize like they had for 11 years was unheard of in any other city. They had won the national award three times – only two others did. And they were the only ones still there and were holding their points.

There is a record there and it is improving.

The work they do is work they shouldn’t be doing as volunteers, she told advisers. They shouldn’t be picking up trash and sweeping the streets. Tidy Towns started out like this, but it has changed dramatically in 50 years.

“The number of volunteer hours that Westport and all the other cities put in, the council couldn’t pay us,” she said.

These were unpaid volunteers who did this outside of their working day.

When we criticized what the volunteers were doing, it was striking. It is their free time, each group that is formed.

There were over 100 volunteer groups in Westport and nothing was done just for them. They take it all, but they have their limits.

With the Covid, for the past two years, the Tidy Towns group has not been able to hit the businesses in the city, which were on their knees. They couldn’t ask them not to put up panels or paint when they tried to stay afloat.

Things were dropped in conjunction with talking to the board saying “we need to relax a bit.”

Tidy Towns provided businesses with discounted flower boxes to make sure the town looked good.

“In the future, if we went on strike, God help you,” she said, “because you would have a job cleaning up Westport or any other town or village if the Tidy Towns went on strike for a long time. month.”

Councilor Christy Hyland clarified that her criticisms were not about Tidy Towns, but about waste management and raising awareness to help volunteers.

He said they needed to find solutions to issues such as the trash cans stored along streets and alleys.

He had a few issues with standards he thought he could fix, like in bottle banks or when the trash cans were full on a Saturday night and people left their trash nearby. He suggested increasing the rubbish fines to € 250.

Councilor Peter Flynn said there were issues in Westport with plastic and neon signs and around accessibility and he didn’t want to see them come back to having all kinds of signs on the street.

Councilor John O’Malley questioned the mindset of people throwing trash out and then expecting volunteers to clean up after them.

Cathaoirleach Councilor Brendan Mulroy commented on how proud communities are to see their grades go up.

Posted: Wed Dec 22, 2019 2021, 7:30 AM

Last update: Wed 22 Dec 2021, 10:58

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