Ballina’s Pearse Street cleaning up its act

Ballina’s Pearse Street cleaning up its act


Ciara Galvin

THE welcomed sunshine threw an exotic glow on Ballina’s Pearse Street yesterday (Monday) as Ballina’s Gum Litter Taskforce Awareness Campaign was launched by Ballina native and former Connacht rugby player Gavin Duffy.
School children from Scoil Íosa and St Oliver Plunkett’s NS were on hand, donned in illuminous hi-viz vests to help launch the worthwhile campaign, while eco cabs emblazoned with anti-litter slogans were peddelled along the sun drenched street.
Councillors from the newly-formed Ballina Municipal Distreet made their way to Pearse Street fresh from their first meeting, while Ballina TDs Dara Calleary and Michelle Mulherin was also in attendance.
Speaking to The Mayo News about the campaign, Administrative Officer with Mayo County Council and former town clerk with Ballina Town Council, Carmel Murphy said the campaign was set up in order to teach pupils about how to properly discard their litter.
“It’s about how to dispose of litter in a proper fashion. You can see Pearse Street here where it’s littered in gum and the street cost us over a million euro a number of years ago and now to clean gum it has to be individually treated and it’s going to cost over €15,000 to clean it,” said Ms Murphy.
It is hoped that the campaign will educate young children about reducing littering.
“They might not always be the culprits but we’re hoping that they will deliver the message.”
Those in attendance received disposable papers in which to put their chewing gum before putting it in the bin.
It is planned that Pearse Street will be cleaned this year and has been a request of the former Ballina Town Council members over the past number of years, according to Ms Murphy.
“We have tenders in place now and we are about to clean it, and before we carry out this work we want to highlight to the people of Ballina, what is involved and hopefully people will drop the horrible habit of spitting gum out,” she concluded.