Three new workers for electoral area

THE Shannon Electoral area is set to get three new workers to help deal with roads issues, Clare County Council’s April meeting heard this week.

Councillor Gerry Flynn told The Clare Champion he welcomed the news, which he claimed was due recognition for the extension of the area’s boundaries.
“We’re getting three new workers and hopefully a bit of money to help also. The Shannon area has taken part of the Killaloe and part of the Scariff areas so it has increased by 25%. Up until now we’ve had no extra resources to deal with the increase.”
While Councillor Flynn said that the increase was welcome, he felt that it should be kept in context.
“This is only going to bring us back to the type of staffing levels that we had three years ago,” he said.
Councillor Flynn said that the amount of illegal dumping and littering around Shannon has become very serious.
“I’ve never seen as much around the town or thrown on the sides of roads. There’s a road by the graveyard going down to the treatment plant and there is absolutely tonnes of rubbish there and I’ve been onto the engineer about it.”
Councillor Flynn said that he had requested that CCTV cameras be put at specific locations around Shannon, where dumping has become particularly prevalent.
Councillor Patricia McCarthy also said that there is a real problem with illegal dumping.
“The amount of littering has got out of control and we have got to get back to being diligent about litter. There are people throwing bags of rubbish from their cars and they should have the book thrown at them. It’s dreadful.”
She said that the recession wasn’t the reason for the increase in illegal dumping. “It’s not because people are having financial difficulties, some people just never bother to dispose of their rubbish properly. There are people for whom money is tight who’ve always made sure not to litter the town.”