Residents in the Woodstown area are regularly being left with the clean-up after weekend parties on the beach, a Fianna Fáil Councillor has asserted.
At a meeting of the Waterford Council Metropolitan area, Cllr Eddie Mulligan said he had been approached by a number of concerned residents complaining about a gathering two weeks ago which was ‘more a full blown concert’ than a party.
A large number of people had converged on the beach that weekend, according to Cllr Mulligan, causing huge disruption to nearby residents and taking over the car park with camper vans.
“This is unfair on the people living close by,” Cllr Mulligan commented.
“Nearly every weekend, they are left with the clean-up after fires being lit on the beach and disposable tents and other rubbish abandoned.” Cllr Mulligan queried who was responsible for enforcing beach bylaws and asked the Council to take action.
Sinn Féin Cllr Pat Fitzgerald added that there was no room for members of the public to use the car park on the weekend in question, such was the volume of camper vans.
“But I was on the beach at 8am on the Monday and everything had been gathered up, there was no rubbish or traces of a fire,” he added.
Later in the meeting, the two councillors disagreed over the state of the Woodstown Road.
Cllr Mulligan said he had been contacted by tourists staying at Faithlegg House Hotel – on holidays from the Faroe Islands and Donegal – who were astonished at the poor condition of Waterford’s coastal roads, particularly the road from Woodstown into the city.
However Cllr Pat Fitzgerald said he would not like the message to go out that all of Waterford’s roads were in bad condition. Cllr Fitzgerald said he had driven the road in question and it was not in a bad condition at all.
