Putting dogs in nappies was just one of the suggestions made by Cllr “Boxer” Moran at the town council meeting this week during the discussion to adopt the Litter Management Plan, during which he referred to litter louts as “selfish, thoughtless ba***rds”.
Cllr Moran was speaking in reply to Cllr Alan Shaw, and agreed with his suggestion that the recent Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL ) rating in which Athlone came 29th in the country should be used as a minimum target for the town for 2010.
Cllr Shaw had been pushing the executive to set targets for the number of enforcement fines issued, having previously pointed out how the recouped fines from the 25 issued in the first half of 2009 “just cover the legal fees” required to get them. However, the staff felt this might be counter-productive.
“There’s more to litter than maximising the amount of money you collect. It’s not supposed to be self-financing,” said Edel Martin, of the housing and environment section.
“Members of the public are getting cleverer [with their illegal dumping techniques]. Sometimes it’s better to stop littering [through surveillance and education] than issue a fine where full evidence mightn’t be available”.
Cllr Shaw was hoping the executive might set a 20 per cent improvement target in this year’s enforcement over last year, but as a back-up consolation, also suggested using the IBAL figure as a yardstick for this year.
Cllr Moran, referring to those who had freshly discarded litter on a stretch of road that had only been tidied up by residents the previous day, called them “selfish, thoughtless b*****ds”.
“They’re only robbin’ themselves,” he pointed out, as taxpayer’s money will ultimately have to finance the tidy-up.
“It’s very hard to get people to give evidence in court on littering. The council staff are doing a great job and I don’t know where they couldd improve. Maybe put a nappy on a dog? They can put them on horses,” he said.
Local director of services, Barry Kehoe, believed targets would be “very hard to achieve”.
“People are more worried about the bottom line figures than the wider issues around litter,” he said, before pointing out how a good score from the Tidy Town committee had as much to do with landscaping and the siting of derelict buildings as it did with litter.
The council’s commitment to making Athlone a litter-free town can be seen in the fact that its street cleaning budget has multiplied by a factor of nearly 10 (€46,930 to €424,000 ) between 2007 and 2009.
The Litter Management Plan, which the council was legally obliged to prepare by the Department of Environment, sets out the next level of objectives for the council in topics such as enforcement, community involvement, prevention, education, recycling, and recovery, and had been available for public perusal and opinion since December.
A Freefone number for reporting littering, fly-tipping, and illegal dumping is available to all residents in the county, and anonymous tips can be left on Lo-call 1890 320 005 or by emailing [email protected].
