Despite the scarcity of money, Tourism Minister Martin Cullen is to come under pressure to provide special grant aid to keep Tramore clean.
Otherwise, members of the local Town Council are convinced, the resort will come up short in its efforts to impress in the IBAL (Irish Business Against Litter) competition which it entered this year.
At the Council’s May meeting on Tuesday night Lola O’Sullivan and Ann Marie Power voiced annoyance over the sight of overflowing kerbside bins over recent weekends.
Supported by other members, they made the point that because of tax and rates accruing from the townspeople they were entitled to expect the County Council to maintain clean streets.
That was after Area Engineer Jane O’Neill identified the County Council’s scarcity of resources as a reason why its choices were limited when it came to extending cleaning schedules.
She said weekend cleaning had been reinstated for the May Bank Holiday weekend and weekend bin emptying and cleaning would recommence for the summer season on the June Bank Holiday period. “While we will try to accommodate people as best we can, we must live within our means”, she commented.
As for the town’s public toilets, she said they were opened for the May Bank Holiday weekend and the main loos on The Prom would open for the summer season on May 29.
Cllr Power raised only faint laughter with a quip that “we won’t be able to spend a penny in Tramore on account of the recession”.
Cllr O’Sullivan said The Prom was in “a horrendous state” from overflowing bins some Monday mornings and if an IBAL Inspector was on his rounds the town’s reputation would be destroyed from a cleanliness viewpoint.
Cllr Joe Conway expressed surprise at how good the cleaning programme was in view of the financial constraints and was of the opinion that it was no better two or three years ago, in times of plenty. But Ms O’Neill disagreed.
She did undertake, however, to “examine the possibilities within the limited resources available”.
It was Cllr Power who suggested lobbying Minister Cullen and
challenging him to come up with some “creative funding plan” to assist the leading resort in his constituency.
