Published: Wednesday, 20th January, 2010 5:00pm

Dirty dogs fall foul of town council

by Sean McMahon

Cllr. Elizabeth McDermott said "dog owners should be asked to immediately clean up after their pets".
Pic by==: 97

It was a case of who let the dogs out to mess up the streets of Belturbet at this week's meeting of the town council. The scourge of dirty dogs passing motions on footpaths all over the county will have to be addressed and the owners will have to be brought to heel, say councillors.

Belturbet dogs are now on a short leash as far as the council is concerned and their irresponsible behaviour has fallen foul of one particular member.

Cllr. Elizabeth McDermott told her colleagues that "dog owners should be asked to immediately clean up after their pets". She said the mess on the footpaths of the town should not be tolerated any longer.

The councillor pointed out that a recent newspaper article claimed a child was blinded by coming into contact with dog dirt. She said drivers were also parking on footpaths, obstructing pedestrians and denying wheelchair accessibility. "People have to go out on the streets to get past and this is not acceptable," said Cllr. McDermott.

Cllr. John Scott noted that people parked at the bank as if the double yellow lines did not exist. "People will not walk the length of themselves any more and I even saw the front wheels of a jeep parked at the front door of the bank. People couldn't get in or out."

Cllr. Patrick Brady suggested that consideration could be given to putting bollards on the path outside the Ulster Bank. It would stop people driving up on the footpath there as double yellow lines don't seem to be a deterrent.

Executive area engineer Paul Mulligan said the traffic warden concentrates on that area as it is a bottleneck, and he has to suffer abuse when he confronts motorists about parking on the path and the yellow lines.

He would examine the feasibility of putting bollards at that location.

Cllr. Tony Gorby was pessimistic that the problem would be solved. There's no place to park at that location and people will continue to pull in there and jump out to avail of the ATM facility, he maintained.

He thought that even if people were fined €500, the matter would not be resolved, because then the whole town would be up in arms.

Mr. Mulligan said the matter of obstructing pedestrians with cars parked on footpaths was serious.

Cllr. Seamus Fitzpatrick brought up the flood at Bunn lake, which cut off the N3 for weeks. A lot of business comes from Cavan town to Belturbet restaurants, he said, but diners decided they would not take detours and cancelled their business.

He also reminded his colleagues that the N3 into the town was closed for a month when the council closed the road for maintenance.

He said there would be no quick fix for parking problems in Belturbet until a bypass and the east/west link road were built, and stressed that either the Drumalee road or the old Clones road would have to be upgraded to take the additional traffic. He pointed out that the old Clones road was the main route from Belfast to Galway at one time.

He asked the town manager Kevin Reilly to investigate the status of the east/west link project before the next meeting.

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