Cigarette butts, vape packaging, and Snus pouches are the ‘bane’ of Castlebar’s clean-up groups
Castlebar Municipal Council has urged members of the public to refrain from littering the town with their smoking products, and a cleaning schedule has been requested to be arranged for the town.
Cllr Harry Barrett raised the issue of litter in the town, asking his fellow councillors to establish a set cleaning schedule for Castlebar.
Cllr Barrett said, “There’s great work being done by the two clean-up teams here, but I’d like a cleaning schedule for the town centre,
“Some of our main streets look grubby, they need to be constantly power-washed. The latest craze is Snus and it’s all over the town, all on the paths. There’s a lot of cigarette butts down the alleyways, and I think Castlebar is famed for its alleyways, we need those washed on a regular basis.
“When tourists come to town, they need to see a great impression of Castlebar.”
Cllr Ger Deere, a committee member on Castlebar’s Tidy Towns clean-up group, agreed with the issue raised. He said: “Cigarette butts are the bane of Tidy Towns and of the council staff out cleaning. They are an awful problem because they’re so hard to pick up, you can’t pick them up with a litter picker.
He added, “These vaping products, the sooner they are banned, the better. There’s nothing but vape wrappers lying around, and they have a sticker wrapper on them. If you look at any of the bins on Main Street, they’re totally destroyed by these stickers.”
“People need to cop on. There’s no excuse for throwing cigarette butts on the ground, it’s no good for the environment obviously, but they are so hard to pick up. Put your cigarette buts in a bin and don’t be throwing them on the ground,” he urged.
Castlebar is a popular tourist destination in the summer, with events planned throughout August. The councillors made a point that this is the time to showcase Mayo’s county town at its best.
“When the rugby game was here, the town was looking exceptionally well, a big effort was put into it. I think we need to maintain that and develop it further,
“I know there’s a music festival on the August bank holiday weekend, and there will be a lot of people coming to the town again, it’s another great opportunity to promote the town and how it looks,” said Cllr Cyril Burke.
David Mellett, head of the Castlebar Municipal District, responded to the councillors concerns and assured them that there is a cleaning and cutting schedule for the town but there is a lack of resources available.
“Resources are always the issue but we are working very hard on getting those. We are proactive and do prioritise areas around certain events,
"We look at those areas where visitors are coming in. The place will look well.”.
Mr Mellett finished by acknowledging the hard work done that is done by volunteer groups such as Tidy Towns, Castlebar Community Clean Up and the Residents Association.
This article has been funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.