Let’s Team Up To Clean Up.
That’s the call of a new community initiative from Kilkenny County Council.
The one-day event will be piloted on a smaller scale on the 9th Oct and then in full on the new St Brigid’s Day Bank Holiday in 2023, ’24 and ’25.
It’s estimated 35 to 50 tonnes of rubbish could be collected in one day by individuals and groupings across the county.
A range of sponsors have signed up and from next month the push will be on to galvanise residents’ groups, clubs and other volunteers to pledge their time.
Details were presented by Environment Department spokesperson Bernadette Moloney and sparked wider conversations.
Cllr Deirdre Cullen welcomed the initiative but said something needs to be done to tackle the issue of dog fouling, calling that a ‘scourge on communities’ telling KCLR News “Kilkenny County Council are one of a number of councils that have not issued any fines in relation to dog fouling whatsoever and if there’s no accountability if there’s no fines for people who are there with their dogs and don’t bother to pick it up it’s no wonder that it’s such a problem right across our communities”.
Director of Services Sean McKeown told elected members that “Legislation is quite weak and enforcement tools quite weak’.
Cllr Cullen says while she accepts that, the issue can’t be ignored; “If no fines, in any shape or form, have been issued regarding dog fouling then we’re never going to get a handle on it and we’re never going to have a deterrent for people who refuse to pick up, to bin it and to act responsibly because dog fouling it’s not just a horrible blight in our communities but there’s health issues, people with buggies, children walking in it, wheelchair users etc, we need as a council to be more proactive in terms of issuing fines because otherwise this problem will continue”.
Meanwhile, her colleague, Cllr Peter ‘Chap’ Cleere noted at the local authority gathering “All this talk of dog poo is reminding me of The Snapper”.
Cllr Cleere had one solution, advising that perhaps DNA tests could be carried out on stools found.
Hear his reasoning on this and other topics when he joined our Sue Nunn on THe Way It Is last evening here:
