Sir, – It’s a sunny Saturday and the promised heatwave has arrived. The council staff have down their rounds and Dún Laoghaire Tidy Towns are out and about planting, watering, sweeping, litter picking. By midday the town is looking good and the volunteers go home to enjoy the rest of the weekend.
Less than 24 hours later, it is a different story. You see, when the sun comes out in Dún Laoghaire, so too do the day-trippers. It has always been that way. The seafront is awash with visitors walking the piers, eating, drinking, sitting in the sun, admiring the view and maybe going for a swim.
It is all very lovely, until it isn’t. By Sunday evening the town resembled a cess pit. A gigantic rubbish dump. The Bigbelly bins’ jaws were prised open, with litter spewing on to the ground. More was piled high on top, soon to be blown around the surrounding area.
The sheer amount of rubbish that was left overwhelmed our council’s efforts to accommodate the increase in footfall with additional rubbish bins.
There are many questions to be asked, but the biggest one is why? Why do the day-trippers show such disrespect and ambivalence to the beautiful town that they have come to enjoy? How do people in all consciousness think it is okay to dump their rubbish and leave our town in such a state?
This resident is filled with fury and despair at what lies ahead as we face into the June bank holiday weekend. – Yours, etc,
CATHERINE HARRIS,
Chairperson,
Dún Laoghaire Tidy Towns,
Co Dublin.
