Cleaning the streets costs €900 a week
THE state of what are being called ‘Drogheda’s Filthy Streets’ is causing heated debate, following news that Louth County Council has used a specialist machine costing €900 a week to clean certain footpaths.
Which areas were actually cleaned is a matter for conjecture, as many are saying the pavements in West Street and the town centre are the worst they have ever been.
At this month’s Municipal District meeting in Drogheda, Sinn Féin Councillor Joanna Byrne raised her concerns regarding the “filth of the pavements, particularly on the main streets of the town centre”
“Firstly I want to ask what streets were actually cleaned on this initial one-week period? I can’t see any improvements so either it wasn’t done or the machine isn’t an adequate solution to tackling this issue,” she said.
“I’m all for cleaning the town in advance of the Fleadh but we should be doing this regardless for our own people, residents and businesses alike who consistently utilise these areas.”
Senior Engineer Mark Johnson assured Cllr Byrne that the job was done over the initial planned period, the machine was used for three days with effective results, but he could not clarify where exactly it had been used.
He went on to inform her of the extensive cost in using this machine, €900 per week, and an additional €300 to get it on-site and that is why there was only limited cleaning scheduled with it.
Firm plans were given for a Deep Cleaning Machine to facilitate aggressive surface cleaning of pavements for a three-week period before the commencement of the Fleadh on August 12th.
Cllr Byrne welcomed the clarification that the aggressive cleaning was effective in the small area it was used on, but was told it would not be in use again until the weeks leading up to the Fleadh.“This is simply not good enough for the people of Drogheda and I am enraged at the unwillingness of the officials to put some pride back into our town. I wish they put as much effort into doing something as they do into making excuses not to do it.”