Great turnout for Cavan Town litter pick and Spring Clean
Tonnes of litter, together with old tyres and a hotchpotch of other discarded items, were gathered up thanks to the scores of hard working volunteers participated in the Cavan Tidy Towns’ litter pick last weekend.
Tidy Towns secretary Paul Lynch was encouraged to see so many young people pitch in. The Cavan effort was one of many across the county.
On Saturday the teams tidied the approach roads to the county town and the town itself, as well as local estates.
Before the volunteers headed off, Paul called for a minute’s silence in memory of Tommy Reilly, an member of the Fairgreen Community Garden and supporter of Cavan Tidy Towns.
After the buzz of Saturday, the scene was more sedate on Sunday as volunteers cleaned the area surrounding the Green Lough’s. The Celt again caught up with Paul, who was joined by Treasurer Martin Connolly and Patricia Masterson.
Martin showed photos of an area they cleaned the day before which shows freshly discarded takeaway containers.
“That was actually within one hour of us cleaning that road,” he lamented, accepting “it can be disheartening at times”.
However Martin, is still upbeat by the overall success across the town. Of Con Smith Park he noted how Tidy Towns judges have praised the amenity as a “jewel in the crown” of the town. “It’s really popular.”
Paul also welcomed the imminent redevelopment plans for of the park, headed up by the council. “There’s a lot of things wrong with Con Smith Park, but there’s a lot of things right with it as well,” he said.
Amongst the problems, Paul notes, “we need to protect the river”.
Whilst dragging waste from the meandering Kinnypottle a frog shoots out from long foliage. Despite the river’s categorisation by the EPA as “at high risk” insect life buzzes on the surface while fish fry flit in its shallows. Amongst the clutter removed from the river’s silty base is a school bag, a traffic cone, beer cans and bottles, and something Paul identifies as a dog-poop bag.
Patricia lives close to the park and saw people socialising there “all day” on a sunny Saturday.
“It was great - they gathered up their rubbish and put it in bags and left them up there.”
It gives hope that just maybe the message is getting through.
SuperValu in Cavan supplied refreshments to the volunteers, while litter picking materials were supplied by Cavan County Council for which the team were grateful.