Tidy Towns chairperson responds to criticism

THE chairperson of Westport Tidy Towns received a round of applause when she responded to criticism of slippages in standards in the town.

Pointing to the hours volunteers spend cleaning towns and villages, if they were to go on strike for a month, 'God help ye', she told a council meeting.

The role of volunteers and all who support Tidy Towns was lauded at a Westport - Belmullet Municipal District meeting, with all five towns and villages who entered the competition in the district increasing their marks.

Rhona Chambers was given an opportunity to address comments made at a previous meeting and she spelt out what a tour de force Westport has been over many decades and continues to be.

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

To secure the large town award as they had done for 11 years was unheard of by any other town. They had won the national award three times - only two others have done that. And they were the only ones still in there and holding their points.

There's a track record there and it was improving.

The work they do is work they should not be doing as volunteers, she told councillors. They should not be picking up litter and sweeping the streets. Tidy Towns had started out like that but it has changed dramatically in 50 years.

"The amount of voluntary hours Westport and all the other towns put in, the council could not pay us," she stated.

They were unpaid volunteers who do this outside of their working day.

When one criticised what volunteers were doing, it hit. It's their own spare time, every group that is set up.

There were over 100 voluntary groups in Westport and only for them nothing would get done. They support everything but they have their limits.

With Covid, over the last two years the Tidy Towns group could not hit the businesses in the town, who were on their knees. They could not ask them not to put out signs or to paint when they were trying to stay afloat.

Things were let go in conjunction with talking to the council in saying 'we have to ease off a little bit'.

The Tidy Towns did supply businesses with flower boxes at a reduced rate to ensure the town looked well.

"Going forward, if we went on strike, God help ye," she stated, "because ye would have a job to clean Westport or any other town or village if the Tidy Towns went on strike for one month."

Councillor Christy Hyland clarified that any criticism he made was not about Tidy Towns but about waste management and creating awareness to help volunteers.

He said they had to find solutions to issues like bins stored along streets and laneways.

He had a few issues about standards which he felt they could address, like at bottle banks or where bins were full on a Saturday night and people leave their rubbish beside it. He suggested litter fines be increased to €250.

Councillor Peter Flynn said there were issues in Westport with plastic and neon signs and around accessibility and he didn’t want to see them going back to having every kind of sign out on the street.

Councillor John O'Malley questioned the mentality of people who dump rubbish and then expect volunteers to clean up after them.

Cathaoirleach Councillor Brendan Mulroy commented on the pride in communities in seeing their marks being increased.