South Park has become a venue for drinking parties, and the noise they create and mess they leave behind is “simply dreadful” and the Gardaí must start to take action.
This is the view of Independent councillor Catherine Connolly, who said it is “completely unacceptable” that the park has become a spot for lager louts.
She gave as an example the state of the park last Saturday, just hours before the special Jarlath McInerney Cycle event began.
“The children’s cycle race was to begin,” she said, “but the cycle path and the area surrounding it was a scene from hell with broken glass and refuse strewn everywhere. It was cleaned up just in time for the race.”
Cllr Connolly said great praise is due “to the men from the litter unit who cleaned up the mess” and the “community wardens who also came to the rescue”. However she said a situation should not have developed where the park was “cleaned up only under pressure”.
According to Cllr Connolly, cutbacks in litter management services and the “failure by the Gardaí to enforce drinking bye-laws in South Park” are a cause of the problem.
“It is high time for the Gardaí to enforce the drink bye-laws which allow them to both confiscate and destroy drink consumed in public,” she said.
Cllr Connolly is calling on the Galway City Council to include South Park and Nimmo’s pier on the regular weekend cleaning rota in and for the Gardaí to enforce the bye-laws
