Farcical scenes in Castleisland as street is turned into dumping site
AMERICA may well be the land of opportunity but Castleisland is most certainly the town of opportunists.
Take the disgraceful vista of the designated area for the collection from last week’s County Clean-Up activity at Tonbwee off Barrack Street.
The one ‘official’ KWD red bag visible was completely smothered and outnumbered by the unofficial/unlawful kind, and it only got worse as the weekend approached, with a further deterioration by Sunday morning.
An angry Cllr Charlie Farrelly was at the site on Sunday morning, and he managed to ‘hunt’ a man who arrived with a consignment of household waste.
Every imaginable kind of unloved household waste was there. Pots and pans; doors and windows; closets and presses; bed and garden furniture; perfectly reusable timber, wrought iron work and a collection of incontinence pads, to top it off.
Local recycling specialist Bob O’Brien arrived and immediately opened the back doors of his van as he realised the vast potential of the Barrack Street bonanza before him.
By Sunday morning the site had become a drive-by – locally created – tourism site, and there were some outstanding examples of rubber-necking as vehicles slowed down to have a gawk at the site’s growing infamy. There were people who genuinely believed that the occasion and the site itself were there at their disposal and that the whole thing was a bit of a free-for-all and an opportunity-knocks sort of an affair.
The more that came there with their cast-offs, the more the belief grew that this was indeed an opportunity not to be missed – and God they didn’t miss out. One can only guess that the sense of opportunity arose from the initiative of years ago when, in an effort to halt the continuing problem of countryside dumping, Kerry County Council organised collection points for just the kind of stuff which triggered the tourism flash mob at the weekend.
The activity of the weekend really angered and disappointed the Castleisland Tidy Towns group. The group members had worked tirelessly for the betterment of the area within the spirit of the annual County Clean-Up campaign.
“What kind of an individual indiscriminately dumps the things they don’t want in front of the homes of our senior citizens?” group chairman John Breen asked.
“A sizable mound of waste had accumulated by Wednesday by those who think that County Clean Up means Dump Whatever You Like In Barrack Street,” he continued.
“The superb council workers removed it all, with the help of a JCB on Wednesday, but by Saturday again the waste pile had reappeared.
“Tax-payers’ money will now have to be spent to remove the remainder. Several persons were observed dumping at the location and their details, including car registration, are being passed to the Gardaí and Kerry County Council litter wardens for follow up,” Mr Breen said.
“Hopefully the pursuit of these people by the relevant authorities, some of whom arrived with trailers of waste, will put a stop to this outrageous behaviour in our town.
“While many in our town are working to keep it looking at its best, others – unfortunately – are sullying its image with their actions. Do they realise it’s their town too?”