Concern over weekend littering in Thurles town centre

Photo courtesy of Cllr Seamus Hanafin

Sunday street cleaning is set to return to the heart of Thurles.

Councillors highlighted problems with littering at this month’s meeting of the Municipal District with claims that Liberty Square and Friar Street were a disgrace last weekend.

Independent Jim Ryan also pointed out that there were issues with broken glass in the town centre at the weekend.

Cathaoirleach of the District Councillor Seamus Hanafin says the town centre shouldn’t be left in such a state.

“It was particularly disappointing to see the amount of litter that was on Liberty Square – particularly given that the bins weren’t full and people could have disposed of the litter properly.

“In the old Town Council days there was a crew who always swept Liberty Square on Sunday morning’s – we need to get that back and I’m delighted that there was a commitment given at the meeting that we’re going to get cleaning crews back on a Sunday morning and to get Liberty Square back to the pristine condition that it should be in.”

Seamus Hanafin says it’s just a small minority of people that are causing the problem.

“The vast majority of people are very careful of how they dispose of their litter but when you see litter thrown around it becomes very unsightly. It takes the look off the place.

“It’s very disappointing for everybody. The general public have been raising this with me so it’s a very small few people. And those small few people who are littering on Liberty Square are probably the same people that are littering all over the place. And an awful lot of money goes to clean up the damage that they do – money that would be better spent someplace else.”