'Exhausting' - Buncrana Tidy Towns set to call a halt to clean-ups in protest

The Buncrana Tidy Towns Initiative, from tomorrow, Monday, is set to halt its work in protest at the reduction in street sweeps on the town’s Main Street.

The group say they have members constantly picking up litter, and the work has become “exhausting”. Without a specialised road sweeper, their workload has doubled in recent times.

They have asked local businesses to look after their own areas and urged locals to express their concerns to Donegal County Council officials.

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Buncrana has been Donegal’s tidiest town, frequently in recent years, at the SuperValu Tidy Towns Awards.

“Dear Buncrana - it's been a long, hard summer for us this year,” they posted. “Losing the road sweeper more than tripled the work for us, with many volunteers litter picking three to four days a week, as well as working on other projects. Rewarding as the work is, it's also exhausting as we all also have jobs, families and busy lives.

“Judging for the competition should now be complete and we will no longer be maintaining the same level of work and will be stopping the street cleans for the foreseeable future. Donegal County Council have been working in the background to provide another service, but to no avail.

“We would ask that all private citizens and businesses please look after, litter pick, weed and scrape the paths outside of your facades, and, if you could highlight this issue to the local councillors until this issue is resolved. Thank so much for your understanding and support.”

Local councillor Jack Murray said the work being done by the Buncrana Tidy Towns Initiative is heroic, and will continue to work for a solution.

“From tomorrow, Buncrana Tidy Towns Initiative, are downing tools in protest at the reduction in street sweeps on our Main Street,” he posted.

“It's a very significant escalation so I need to be very clear on where I stand on this. To me, the volunteers of the Tidy Towns are heroes. Sin é.They are the one group of people who are lauded by everyone. They epitomise the power of community spirit. I will always be on their side.

“Buncrana, as it is now, has never looked better. This town has very recently been awarded as the tidiest and best presented in the entire country - and for good reason. Take a walk up the street and look at the effort put in by the entire community. It's spotless.

“Our local businesses have blooming flowers out almost every window. It's unrivalled anywhere else.

“Our Tidy Towns, our businesses, our entire community, and often with dedicated council staff support (workers who are from here and have great pride in it), have it looking pristine. Of course, though, we always need to strive for better. Unfortunately, a national policy of privatisation meant that services like street sweeping were outsourced and have since become unaffordable.

“Last year, we first met this crisis as we were faced with a huge increase in costs from a private company. At that point, I, along with Rena Donaghey and Nicholas Crossan, intervened and allocated €15,000 each of discretionary funding to keep the street sweeper going. Only for that, we'd have reached this point 12 months ago. That's the facts of it.

“This year, we were told that the auditor wouldn't allow that to be done again, so councillors' interventions collapsed. That's why we are where we are now.

“I have since facilitated meetings between the council and the Tidy Towns to try and avoid coming to this point, but a solution has yet to be found. We will continue to work on this, and I will seek a meeting again this week.

“To be fair on it, council has ordered a 'Billy Goat' street sweeper, which I'm confident will help. This is currently in transit and will arrive in a few weeks.

“Hopefully that will help solve the impasse and allow the Tidy Towns volunteers to get back to doing what they love - with the unwavering support of everyone who lives here.

“If there are failings, then I will never, ever be an apologist for that. But if there are solutions to be found, then we as elected representatives, with our businesses, with our community volunteers, and with our council will all work together to find it. Everyone wants that. So let's do it.”