Council and gardaí move to restrict access to amenities
SLIGO County Council said this week that it is working with the gardaí to to restrict access to amenity areas across the county in order to prevent large numbers congregating. The council said that “arising from concerns expressed by the government and HSE on the rampant transmission of the Covid-19 virus in the community, a number of measures are being introduced in the interests of public health and safety”. “Concerns have risen over the weekend of large numbers of people travelling beyond the 5km limit to exercise and social distancing not been adhered to,” a council spokesperson said.
The council has said that access will be restricted to beaches such as Mullaghmore, Streedagh, Culleenamore, Enniscrone and Rosses Point.
Other amenities affected include Half-Moon Bay in Hazelwood, Dooney Rock, Slish Wood and Union Wood, Benbulben scenic walk at Gortarowey, Mitchell Curley Park in Sligo town and Strandhill promenade.
“We hope that these actions will prevent further widespread community transmission and aid in all of efforts to save lives,” the council spokesperson said.
Accepting that not being able to go to these places will be difficult for many people, the council's acting chief executive Tom Kilfeather said: “You have to have sympathy for people, especially those with young children. The weather is good and people want to get out.
“But there is no doubt that not just in Sligo but right across the country there have been large numbers of people congregating at beaches and at amenities.”
He said the difficulty with people gathering in large numbers now is the way the Covid case figures are increasing.
“We have to restrict the movement of people and that is in line with the government guidelines at the moment and that is the background to our decision in consultation with the gardai,” he said on local radio.
Mr Kilfeather said the gardaí don't have the resources to stop people going to these locations and “are going to take a common sense approach, as they have done since the start of of the crisis”. He said they were asking people not to visit these places if they are outside their 5km radius.
“We are in a crisis situation and it is probably worse than it has been at any stage.
“These restrictions are there to protect us all and we have to abide them. The 5km limit still allows people to get out and exercise particularly with the weather being dry.” Garda Superintendent Mandy Gaynor also appealed to people to respect the 5km radius limit.
She said: “Due to the concerns over the number of (Covid) cases that have arisen over the weekend we were concerned about large numbers of people travelling beyond the 5km limit.”
“We all have to work together and we hope that these actions will prevent the further widespread community transmission in an effort to save lives. “If these restrictions are to work everybody has to play their part in protecting themselves and their community and their families,” she told Ocean FM. Sligo County Council has said that its offices will be open to the public, but with restricted access. A spokesperson said: “In the interests of public health and safety, local authorities across the country are obliged to provide their services in a different way, and in line with current public health guidance, visits to council offices will be by prior appointment only.”