Tidy Towns’ planters vandalised in Fermoy
‘Wanton vandalism’ was in evidence in Fermoy last Thursday morning as locals awoke to discover that flower pots and planters had been overturned, moved and broken the previous night.
Two large flower pots, located outside Abbeyville House near Brian Boru Square, had been broken, along with another across the road, while in other locations around the town, flowers had been pulled out of their pots.
Speaking to TheAvondhu, Paul Kavanagh of Fermoy Tidy Towns said locals were ‘horrified’ with what had happened and described the incidents as ‘pure wanton vandalism’.
“We had a few bits and pieces like this in the past. We’ve had things stolen but this is absolutely the worst. We had nothing like this during Covid. It came as a shock, out of the blue,” Mr Kavanagh said.
The incident has been reported to Gardaí.
Mr Kavanagh noted the large size and significant weight of the flower pots, which he claims require at least four adults to lift. Unnecessary and unexpected expense has been incurred as a result of the damage.
“Pots are €100 each and that’s when they’re empty. We have to fill them with topsoil and the rose bush trees are €100. You can’t buy those (trees) mature, you can only buy yearlings and those ones were almost ten years old, they improve with maturity.
“When roses get knocked out, you can’t put a new rose bush into the pot because they won’t take. In their current state, those roses would cost around €250 so all in, to replace the flower pots it would be about €400,” Mr Kavanagh said.
Temporary repairs were carried out by the Avondhu Blackwater Partnership, who were thanked for their assistance, as Mr Kavanagh noted: “If we didn’t have them we would be in right trouble”.
It is unlikely that Fermoy Tidy Towns will be able to replace the pots due to their expense.
“We have a lot of other things to be doing rather than fixing broken pots and picking up knocked over plants. The end result is, we probably won’t be able to fix those pots. Whoever did this needs to pay up because we can’t afford to fix it!” he said.
Anyone who may have witnessed these mindless events, or have CCTV in the area, are asked to contact Gardai if they can assist to help catch the perpetrator(s).
WORK CONTINUES
The local voluntary group remain active in the locality and have recently carried out clean-ups of summer bedding in preparation for Christmas. Winter planting was also recently carried out as 13 birch trees and three golden rain trees were planted by Dave Clarke and Avondhu Blackwater Partnership. These trees were donated by local gardener, Dorota Narbut, who had grown them from seed.
Volunteers also carried out more Christmas preparation work in Pearse Square and refurbished the hanging boxes on the Range railings.
The recent national Tidy Towns awards saw a host of positive comments regarding Fermoy and the work carried out by local volunteers, however the town lost out on attaining a Bronze medal by just three points.