'Bin the litter bins' Cootehill councillors advised

Kevin Carney A Cavan County Council official has re-iterated their policy that 'less is more' when it comes to fitting out the county's towns and villages with litter bins. This week one of the authority's most senior officers pointed to the results of this year's national Tidy Towns awards as proof that litter bins may not be all that they're made out to be. Peter Gallagher, Cavan County Council's delegated officer for Cootehill, told town councillors that the success achieved by the people of Abbeyshrule in County Longford in winning the premier national Tidy Towns award was notable in more than one aspect. Mr Gallagher pointed out that Abbeyshrule's Tidy Towns committee made the decision to remove all the litter bins in their town. "I will say no more," the council official stated at the September monthly meeting of Cootehill Town Council. Mr Gallagher made his summation at the conclusion of a discussion by councillors on street cleaning in Cootehill which was tabled by Cllr Paddy Halton and during which Cllr Vincent McCaul called on the county council to provide more litter bins for the town. Cllr McCaul also suggested that if an extra charge was presented to them, shopkeepers in the town would be more eager to help clear up litter outside their businesses. Cllr McCaul also called on the local authority to put pressure on the owners of derelict buildings in the town to paint their properties. Meanwhile Cllr Michael McCarey said that some way ought to be found which would allow unemployed people to help clean up the town's streets. Cllr John Martin demanded greater service from the local authority regarding the number of hours and manpower allocated to street cleaning in Cootehill. "Cavan County Council has to clean up their own act before telling others to do likewise. They should be ashamed of themselves," Cllr Martin declared.