Kilkee businesses placed under rubbish spotlight

KILKEE town manager, Anne Haugh has suggested that business people in the resort town may have to play an increased role in keeping the town tidy during the summer season.

At the June meeting of Kilkee Town Council, the councillors heard that while Kilkee was very tidy in the build-up to the June Bank Holiday weekend, the bins were overflowing with rubbish come the evening of Bank Holiday Monday. Domestic rubbish being left beside public bins was also highlighted. However, Ms Haugh said Clare County Council cannot afford to have more bin collections in Kilkee.

“There are finite resources. We don’t have the budget to increase rubbish collections at weekends. I think at some point we’re going to have to resort to putting responsibility back on the businesses to some degree,” the town manager suggested.

“There are responsibilities there under the Litter Act to keep the area within 100 metres of your premises clear. There are powers in that law that haven’t been invoked as of yet by Clare County Council. It may well be that maybe Kilkee could be a pilot for it, where we work with the business community. We tell them what’s expected of them and make them aware of what their responsibilities are under the law. After that, if the problem still presents and you have evidence that a particular area of the town is more littered because of refuse generated from a business, then I think you’d have to resort to going back to the businesses and getting them to play their part. There are special powers under the Litter Act,” she pointed out.

However, newly elected Mayor of Kilkee Paddy Collins said businesses and community groups are already prepared to work towards ensuring a tidier town during the peak visitor season.

“The businesses and the community are very willing to work with Clare County Council. It seems Clare County Council has a problem working with the businesses,” he claimed. “Now you’re kind of threatening that you’re going to enforce the law. That’s very unfair. We had a long meeting here recently about how the businesses and community were looking to come up with a solution.”

“A lot of the rubbish is household and takeaway rubbish. That in itself poses a problem and it needs to be dealt with. There is legislation there under the Litter Pollution Act,” Kilkee town clerk John Corry commented.

“They actually think they’re doing you a favour, leaving their bag of domestic rubbish beside the litter bin. There were at least three of them there this morning by where the periwinkles are sold. There is a huge amount of takeaway food sold in Kilkee on any given day,” Councillor Lily Marrinan Sullivan stated.
Adding that Kilkee had looked in pristine condition in the build-up to the Bank Holiday, Councillor Marrinan Sullivan said that soon changed.

“The tragedy was that with all of the work put in by the lads on the run-up to Whit Weekend, the town was a holy show this morning [Tuesday, June 4]. It was because of the bins. I had a couple of discussions today with business people and we were saying that maybe on the days when they know that the council cannot release the lads to work, that the business people might put out an additional bin if there was some understanding that the bin would be taken away the next day.

“The town was packed. It was great to see it. The town needed it and it lifted everybody but it would have done your heart no good this morning to see it the way it was after the way it looked on Friday,” she commented.

“Also, town manager, the bins that were taken up in the West End last year still haven’t been put back,” Councillor Collins noted.

“I spoke to [executive engineer] Cyril Feeney and he said that they would definitely be in place this week,” Mr Corry replied.

“This is our third Bank Holiday weekend we’ve gone through and at every meeting afterwards we’re talking about rubbish on the streets,” Councillor Collins retorted.