The dirty state of Tramore’s beach left a local public representative red faced in front of visiting delegates to a conference in the resort.
Town Councillor Pat Finnerty said that, to avoid further embarrassment, he cut short a walk on the beach last week after meeting a couple of groups who voiced dismay at its condition. It was a disgrace, he said.
The delegates were attending a Wetlands Conference in the Majestic Hotel and Cllr Finnerty made the comments at the Town Council’s monthly meeting on Monday night.
Cllr Lola O’Sullivan said she blamed visitors for the mess. She agreed the beach was ‘horrendously filthy’ with items such as dirty nappies in evidence but she maintained locals had sufficient respect for the precious facility not to leave their rubbish strewn there.
Frustrated with the situation, she said she didn’t know what could be done to force the perpetrators to behave themselves but naming and shaming anybody convicted of litter offences might have some effect.
She appealed to traders in the vicinity to allocate one staff member to spend an hour clearing rubbish from the beach each weekend. The local Chamber of Commerce could be contacted in that regard, she suggested.
Cllr Blaise Hannigan said people wouldn’t behave in such an objectionable manner when holidaying on the continent but they had no difficulty doing so on their own doorstep.
‘Ghosts’ toppling bins
On a related subject, Cllr Joe O’Shea asked that bins around the town be secured to the ground so that ‘kids full of beer’ couldn’t topple them over, spilling their contents onto the streets. It happened every weekend, he said, with Main Street particularly targeted.
The Councillor said he had endeavoured to catch somebody in the act but had not yet succeeded. “They appear like ghosts in the night”, he commented. Cllr O’Sullivan confirmed that CCTV cameras, limited in their range, had also failed to pinpoint the culprits.
Town Manager Brian White undertook to examine the possibility of securing the bins and also said he would get in touch with the gardai on the matter.
My Tramore beach Story. I was on holidays (from NZ) with my family last September in Tramore. While walking along the beach, my partner observed a large dog crap on the beach right in front of her. The dogs owner made no attempt to remove or bury HIS dog shit, When my parner challenged him she was told to F##ck off; while the locals all scurried off and pretended nothing was happening.
Same as it ever was
I am originally from Ireland,however have lived many years in England. When returning to visit I still find it horrifying that people allow their dogs to crap anywhere without showing any interesting in Ireland. England while not the cleanest of places does enforce no tolerance to pet owners who do not clean up after there pets. This now transends to fellow walkers. In waterford there is dog crap everywhere, you still have to watch where you making it a very unpleasant place to stay. The said councillor has defeatist atttitude, and is unreasonable to expect local businesses to clean up after others. It would be really easy to enforce fines, for those to who litter and allow dogs to foul in public and leave it there. If Germany as large as it is then Waterford can do it. Councillors what are you paid for.
I live in England also but I’d have to disagree with Eva about the relative levels of shog dite between here and Waterford. A chav is a chav no matter where you go and they same people who fling their takeaway wrappers out the windows of their ‘souped up’ Corsas are the ones who give their dogs permission to relieve themselves at will. I’d advocate a special mobile, heavily armed, task force to deal with this problem. Offend twice and have your dog impounded – no, make that once. In my defence I am normally a tolerant sort of individual but the knuckle dragging ignorance of litterers and inconsiderate dog owners is just intolerable.
Simple answer,it’s time for local control of local police and regular police patrol and consistent enforcement of the law on the beach. resort towns around the world Manage to keep their beaches clean and holiday resort towns pleasant by forbidding nonsense like this, people need to get over their squimishness about coming down hard on people that behave like scum or accept the reality that the only alternative is to reduce all of us to the level of the worst of us.
Bird crap, fish crap, horse crap, dog crap doesn’t really matter – it is all part of the natural world and always has been. the tide washes every day as well.
however the litter from people leaving behind their chips, beer cans, cigaret butts, unfinished ice cream cones, used diapers and other assorted wrappings are a disgrace.
The council doesn’t want more bins because then they have to empty them. It’s a bit like aiming the pistol straight at your foot as a messy beach attracts fewer tourists.
The guards of course, will be out protecting our safety on the Tramore road slowing down traffic to look for expired tax disks.